


Bella the SHIELD

by elenapadmeamidala



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Twilight (Movies), Twilight Series - All Media Types
Genre: Badass Bella, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Crossover, Crossover Pairings, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-12
Updated: 2020-01-04
Packaged: 2020-05-02 01:46:12
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 20
Words: 63,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19189408
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elenapadmeamidala/pseuds/elenapadmeamidala
Summary: Initially set Twilight 3/(Pre-)Avengers: Bella's life changes irrevocably after someone close to her had been murdered. Who will protect her from the army of Newborns? The Pack? The Cullens? Or someone else entirely? Someone who has watched over her from afar? Find out!





	1. Gruesome murders

**Author's Note:**

> I always had problems with the depiction of the weak co-dependent Bella in Twilight. Yes, the relationship between Edward and Bella in Twilight is not love, even though the author sells it as love. The relationship between the two is severe codependency.  
> So, for some reason, I constantly have the urge to rewrite her into a strong independent young woman, who can actually take care of herself without the constant need for protection.
> 
> I'm happy to hear your thoughts in the comment section.

Bella has enjoyed spending the day with her best friend Jacob and the pack, even though he had almost lost his temper when he had heard of her decision to become a vampire. Except this little disagreement it was the best day she had for a very long time. She had felt more like herself. Edward however would be with her the second Jacob returned home. It must have been really hard for him to stay calm when she had driven off, effectively skipping school with her best friend. But somehow it almost had felt liberating to leave him behind. As much as she loved Edward he simply was not able to leave her some space and acted more like a mother hen then a lover sometimes.  Well, he was old-fashioned after all.  It was late and Charlie would probably throw a fit but she hoped that the fact that she had spent the day with Jacob would lessen the long speech she was about to hear. He had suggested the deal after all.  Entering the door a strong feeling of dread was slowly beginning to spread through her body. What was she dreading? She had this conversation with her dad a thousand times before! Why did she dread it now? She could hear that the TV was on. He was probably watching some football game. Hopefully his team was winning. Then he would be in a more agreeable mood. Just as she wanted to step forward to greet Charlie there was a knock on the door. Edward. Right on cue! Sighing she slowly opened the door to greet her pale, worried boyfriend. His normally golden eyes were very dark.

"Bella, do you know how hard it was to not break the treaty?" he asked accusingly but suddenly stopped sniffing the air.

 "Right. Sorry! I know I smell after wet dog" she murmured, trying to get out of her jacket, but was interrupted.

 "No! It’s not that" he hissed entering swiftly and running behind her slowly crouching to the living room. 

"Edward? What it is it?” She asked confused, following him until she stopped dead in her tracks. The overwhelming smell of salt and copper slammed into her.  There was blood everywhere!  On the floor, on the carpet and even on the walls! She could not move! The urge to vomit was very strong. Charlie was still sitting in his favourite chair! It was her fault!  She had befriended the Cullens which had put her and her entire family in danger. Now her father was dead! Slaughtered by Victoria or one of her disciples! Bella's hand twitched to reach her right pocket where her phone was. The urge to call him was very strong now! But he could not help her with this! He worked for the government! They probably didn't even know that the supernatural existed. Did they? Or worse he would put her in an asylum for insane, making her an easy target for Victoria.  But she had to protect Renee! She needed to find out if she was alright!  She couldn't protect her dad! She couldn't lose her too! He was dead! Gone from this world forever! No more football games with silly shouting at the TV, no more awkward father-daughter talks. The smell of salt end copper was getting heavier; her head began spinning out of control. She could not faint now! She had to figure out what to do! But the last thing she felt were Edward’s cold dead hands catching her, before everything went dark.

* * *

 

Walking through his former lover's house he was in a sombre mood. No one deserved to be killed like this. He would not even wish it upon his worst enemy. She and her younger husband had been slaughtered! There body’s heavily mutilated. Through his job he had seen many bad crime scenes, even supernatural ones, but this one was quite heavy to stomach, even for him. Not only because he had known one of the victims intimately, but also because he would have to be the one to tell her and Charlie about this. What was even more surprising was that his people could not find any trace about the murderer. Not a single string of DNA. No footprint! Nothing! Nada! He could also not think about a reasonable motive why they were murdered. Phil (his namesake) had been a promising baseball player with many fans, groupies and a few jealous haters. Yet, Rene was the more likely candidate for enemies as she had had worked for S.H.I.E.L.D.  once. But this had been years ago and only for a year until she had discovered, that it had been a bit too strict for her. She had started as a promising, intelligent mind, but had never been able to stick to the rules, which had caused some maham at the agency and had ultimately drawn him to her. He just seemed to attract trouble. Adding the immense work load to an already young and fragile marriage with Charlie she had then found solace in him until she had changed her mind again and decided to give her marriage another chance. He had been crushed at first, but also understood to some extent. In the long run it would not have worked out anyway. He tried to remember if Renee could have possibly made any enemies during her time at S.H.I.E.L.D. but his memory came up empty. Renee had not been on the front line. He had seen to that.  Her workplace had been behind a computer, coordinating missions via satellite at unearthly hours, and hacking for valid information. Finding information via hacking had been her speciality, because of her creative and approaches, but nobody except him and Fury had known her real name. Her codename had been “The mongoose”. Perhaps one of his countless enemies had found his connection to her and taken revenge. But this would mean that this killing spree is not yet over! She would be in danger! He had to get her to safety!

A sudden ringing made him stop his assessing! "Director?"

"A jet is waiting for you! Mrs. Sawyers, case is not the only one!" he heard the gruffly voice of his one eyed boss.

"Where is the other one?" he asked firm but was feeling quite sick, as his heartbeat accelerated. _'Please, let it not be Bella'_ he thought.

 "Forks, Washington!" Fury's voice said.

 "Wh..." Phil needed to find his breath again, took a deep breath. "Who is the victim?", he enquired holding his breath.

"The Chief of police: Charlie Swan." His heavy heart became lighter as he heard that it was not his godchild.

 "What about Isabella?"

 "Report says that she and her boyfriend were the ones who found him.”

 _Oh! God! Why was she the one to find him!'_   She is currently in hospital getting medical attention!" _'Medical attention!!!! Has she seen the murderer?_

 "Why? Is she hurt?"

 "No, just fainted at the sight of blood and hit her head on the floor! I've sent Barton and Romanov to keep an eye on her until you arrive. They were closer to the scene." 

_Could Barton and Romanov really protect her if necessary?_

"Thank you, Sir!"But Fury had already disconnected the call. He was not one to hear what he called “sappy things”.  He had to get to her as soon as possible! With the jet it would still take one and a half hours to reach the hospital. One hour to get to Port Angeles and half an hour to get to the hospital.  Too much could happen in that time! Even with the agency's two best spies/assassins there.

* * *

 

Natasha and Barton had no difficulties entering the hospital. It was a small local hospital. Every one of the staff seemed to know the other personally. Finding the girl, they were sent to protect was also not hard as there was quite a commotion near her. Five strange, impossibly beautiful people were standing around the girl and some strong young native men.

 _They must be on steroids!_ she thought remembering that she would investigate the supply chain later. This could not be legal! Scanning the beautiful ones first Natasha thought that they cannot be really that beautiful. She took a mental step back and assessed them one by one. Something was definitely off about them. They had faces that would make Snow White jealous and bronze eyes.

 _Who has bronze eyes?_ There was the blond, kind looking man in his mid twenties, early thirties, who apparently was a doctor. Then there was a motherly looking female who seemed a few years older than him. A very bored looking, sneering blonde with a perfectly structured waist, who seemed to not like the girl very much, as she was standing further apart then the others.

 _Why was she here, when she didn’t like her?_ The massively muscles young man with dark curly hair next to her had something of a bear; Ridiculous amount of muscles, but somehow protective.

 _This town has a serious steroid problem!_  Closest to the girl was a young pale man with bronze hair that looked attractive at first sight. But by closer inspection it was obvious that he was unhealthily thin. His face did not have perfect 1:1:3,63 like the other ones. It was not that regular. His eye brows were thicker than the others and he was standing too close to Isabella Swan than Natasha would have liked, because if he wanted to do her harm, she would not be close enough to counteract his moves. At that moment the small pixie looking girl, with short black hair seemed to have a small seizure as her eyes became unfocused. Well, it didn’t look like an epileptic attack, but maybe it was something else? This certainly was interesting! Were they gifted? Where they Mutants, Inhumans or something else? The last one of the others was also not the epitome of beauty by closer inspection. He was untidy, lanky and had a quite feminine look about him. His face was also not in perfectly proportioned and his mouth was a slightly crooked.

Why was the bronze guy next to the girl looking at her like that! He was analysing her! Ha! He should try.

Meanwhile Barton had studied the natives. Two looked as if they were eating steroids for breakfast. They were tall, seemed to consist only of muscles and everyone had a tribal tattoo. On the first sight the tattoos looked all the same, but on closer inspection each one was different than the other. Each one was probably telling the story of their family lineage. The third native was sitting in a wheelchair, but he still looked impressive as he seemed to have the air of a leader around him. He was most likely the chief. The second one also held himself quite proud. He was tall, looked collected and calm while the youngest who seemed to be the son of the men in the wheelchair as they shared some facial similarities looked as if he would like to tear the pale ones into pieces.

The girl was still lying on the daybed. Her breathing was slow but steady. They needed to protect her until agent Coulsen could come. Barton wondered what her connection to Coulson was. She obviously meant a lot to him, as he had left everything behind in Phoenix and was on his way here. Even Fury seemed to know her better than most of the agents in the agency.

 

* * *

 

Edward was looking at his little fragile Bella. He had caught her just before she had hit the floor. How she had managed to fight her fainting for so long was a miracle to him. He had called the police and told them what they have found and asked for an ambulance.  The sirens of the police cars had then alerted the pack that something was amiss which lead members of the pack to make an appearance. Sam, Jacob and Billy were now standing in the infirmary arguing where Bella should stay after her father's demise. She could not get back into the house. Not until the police has cleared the crime scene. Billy was arguing that he was her father's best friend and that she can stay in his daughter's old room. She would be protected in the Rez, as they had obviously not been able to. This statement seemed to attract the attention of a stealth middle aged man with short brown hair who had entered the room quietly before with a female red haired companion.  Strangely they did not look for someone here and lingered in the room.

Edward realised that this man did not take his eyes of the pack, while the red headed female, who reminded him a bit of Victoria seemed to have taken an interest in his family. Who were these people? What were they doing here? Entering their minds he could see how precise they were in taking in every detail. Really every detail about them! But he was even more surprised when he could hear in the female’s head that he was standing too close to Bella! She was seeing him as a potential threat! They were here to protect her?!

 _Where have they come from?_ But he couldn’t manage to get the answer out of their heads, as they were only focusing on assessing them and protecting the girl until Agent Coulson would come. They really had very focused minds.

Coulson! He had heard about the man after the debacle with James in Phoenix. He was an agent? Who was he to Bella? Was he a danger to his family?  This man had called Renee on her phone while Bella had still been unconscious. She had picked up and had told the man called Phil on the phone, that Bella was fine and that she had simply overreacted with her boyfriend. He assumed at first that Phil had been her husband the Baseball player but this voice was older. Not knowing that Edward listened in on her she almost started a fight with the strange man. He had insisted that Bella was not someone who overreacted and that she was normally very level headed. Like her grandmother! It made no sense to him.

But Renee had defended him and had told this man that it had all been a terrible misunderstanding; obviously the wrong thing to say! He had criticized her about forgetting her training in the academy and demanded to know the name of Bella's boyfriend and his family, but Renee had hissed angrily in her cell phone: "Phil Coulson! Don't you dare poking around in her life! She is not one of your cases!"

This Agent Phil Coulson was on his way here! But to do what! Would he take her with him? Had the police informed him? Was he a relative? _Why haven't they called Renee?_ He did not know much about Bella's family background. He knew that Charlie had been an only child. That's why Billy had almost been like a brother to him. Maybe he was an uncle from her mum's side. An uncle who was an agent! Agent of what?! FBI, CIA, NCIS, or one of the other countless secret agencies in this country.  He would not let this man take away his Bella. He would not leave her again! She was his!

 


	2. Rescue

He would not leave her again! She was his! Alice’s vision was disturbing enough! A few very red eyed vampires were passing around her favourite red blouse which still had her lingering, mouth-watering scent. These were new vampires, which could not be controlled. Adding the new death rate of Seattle to her vision, then they were probably in this town which was not as far away as he would have liked.

“Newborns are on the way here” he informed his family and also the two pack members in a lower frequency than the human ear was possible to pick up. This seemed to shock everyone and the quarrelling stopped immediately. If the situation had not been so dire, he would have enjoyed the faces of the dogs. Sam and Jacob’s mouth was hanging open and the younger one was trying to get closer to his Bella. This however evoked him to snarl at him. The two strangers on the opposite side of the room just looked perplexed as if they had no idea what had just happened. The redhead’s right hand twitched behind her back.

“How are they different from you?” Sam wanted to know. The leeches looked worried and that was never a good sign. The Edward boy looked more protective over Bella than ever, almost possessive. Maybe he wasn’t as noble as Bella portrayed him all this time. He may not like her very much, but she was important to Jacob and some members of his pack. The vamp was a threat to her, even if she did not want to see it.  Emily had ordered him not to be hard on Bella, because she suspected that the Vampire’s presence could be addicting to her. From what she has heard from Sue, Bella seemed to have gone through involuntary cold turkey after the Cullen’s had left her alone and abandoned in the woods. She even suggested that the vampires could have released pheromones to lure in their pray: In their case Bella. Carlisle sighed heavily:

“Newborns are stronger and more dangerous than us, because they still have their own blood in their system and they have not yet mastered control over their blood lust.”

“When will they arrive here?” Jacob asked a very worried looking Alice.

“Probably in three days”, she told him “but I cannot be really sure. I cannot even see who created those New Borns”.

“Great! Why do you have a gift, when it is useless!” he scoffed.

“Could it be the redhead? What’s her name? Victoria?” Sam suggested preventing Alice from retaliating and keeping the conversation on an objective level. “She seems to be quite evasive!” 

She was hearing voices. First far away, but they became clearer and clearer. She heard Carlisle and Sam. Why would those two talk to each other without ripping each other apart? Then she was slowly becoming aware of the distinctive hospital smell and the beeping in the room. Why was she in hospital again? What happened?

 _Oh God! Of course! Charlie!_ _He is dead!_ It was her fault! How did she get here? Groaning she tried to sit up, which caused everyone to shut up immediately. She had to call her mum and warn her! _She is in danger!_ Maybe she could send one of the Cullens to protect her.  She had lost her dad; she could not lose her loving, yet absolutely crazy mother too. Or maybe Phil could take her away, keep her safe! She would tell him to put her in witness protection program. Would Victoria be able to find her? She would also need a reasonable explanation for putting her mum in a witness protection program. Phil would probably put her in an insane asylum! Or could he help? But Victoria did not know about her him! He would be safe if she didn’t call him.

 “Has anyone called Renee?” she wanted to know but looking into their faces she saw the answer and started to snap for air.

“I need to call Renee! I need to know that she is safe and I have to warn her!” Edward was trying to embrace her but she could not take his cold touch at the moment. She needed something warm and living. Only Jacob’s embrace managed to calm her, when Billy told her that he would immediately call Rene to come here. They could protect her here during the service for Charlie.

Their protégé had finally woken up! It was about bloody time! Natasha was even more convinced now, after witnessing the strange communication among the two groups, that they could not be human. Some sort of silent communication had been going on. The only confused person in those two groups had temporarily been the one in the wheelchair, but only for a minute. After seeing the girl starting to hyperventilate she just wanted to move over to her trying to calm her. But that was not really her natural instinct. Why now? She even had the strong urge to just grab the girl and take her away. It was obvious that she was somehow involved in something really bad. But she looked so innocent and lost. Maybe she wasn’t as innocent as she appeared to be. Natasha knew better than most that appearance could be deceiving.

“Great, exactly what we needed: a love triangle” Barton mumbled clearly annoyed seeing the girl refusing the embrace of the pale young man and accepting the one of the younger native. Her phone started to vibrate informing her about the latest update on her mission. “Cullen Family: Fake Identities or inconclusive information!” She showed it to Barton whose hand went to his gun. Better safe than sorry!

“Miss Swan” a police officer who just entered addressed Bella. “I’m really sorry about your dad! He was a good guy!” He took a deep breath as if collecting himself. This could not be good! What was he going to say to her? Her father was dead! There was nothing worse than that at the moment. Edward suddenly was trying to get closer to her again, but Jacob would have none of it. Of course he knew what this man would tell her. It could not be good! _Please don’t let it be about Mum!_

“We tried to call your mother in Jacksonville as she would have been your closest living relative, but she did not answer.” he informed her, taking another deep breath he continued: “Your mother and your step-father were murdered too. The M.O. and the time is exactly the same as your father’s death.”

 _No! They were also dead!_ She was also responsible for their deaths! She has lost her entire family in one day! She could not stop herself. The shock was about to overwhelm her! She was slowly pulling her knees up to her chin and started rocking herself. She was alone now! It was her fault! Her stupidity had killed her family!

“What is M.O.?” she heard Billy ask and answered him automatically, having another crying fit and shocking everyone with her knowledge:”Modus operandi, meaning the specific way they were killed.” 

The police officer nodded and asked carefully:”Is there anyone else related to you that we could call? We haven’t found anyone else listed.” but she just shook her head knowing full well who she desperately wanted to call. He had always been closer to her than Charlie, because she was just able to connect to him better. He had sometimes surprised her by picking her up from school, when he had time. Much to the chagrin of her mother, who had always seemed a bit uncomfortable around him. But she did not want to endanger him or his mother, who was like a real grandmother to her.  Nobody knew about him in this godforsaken town!

 “Charlie was my best friend! If it is ok for you she can come home with us. She shouldn’t be alone right now.” Billy asked the officer knowing full well that the Cullen’s would not agree with him.

“She is my girlfriend! Of course she stays with us! We have enough free rooms! ” Edward snarled. The tension was rising again, making Natasha and Barton move closer to them to intervene. 

“Yes, but Charlie never liked you in the first place!” Jacob objected loudly.

“She is not coming with any of you!” a strong new voice interrupted the dispute causing everyone to jump. Next to them was a middle aged man with short hair who looked like an accountant or a pencil pusher to Edward.  He saw the redhead and the other man retreat.

 Everyone was looking at the newcomer, asking themselves who he was.  Who was he to deny any of them to take Bella home? Why had they not heard him enter? Bella gasped and whispered flabbergasted:”Phil? What are doing here?”  He did not answer and went straight to his crying godchild, embracing her.

Natasha and Clint could not believe what they saw: Phil Coulson embracing someone! That was a first. They knew he had no own family, because as Fury’s right hand man, he simply had no time for one.  It also seemed that Bella could not let go of him as she got his suit wet with her countless tears. Everyone else was just standing around them still not knowing who he was. She had called him Phil. But they had heard that Rene’s husband had also been murdered. Who was he?

Edward could finally put a face to the voice he had heard month before. This was the agent! He did not look like much and would not let him take her away. She was his singer! She was meant for him! He needed to know the man’s plans with Bella! But as he tried to enter the man’s mind he found that he could not hear anything! He became very frustrated as another try became just as unfruitful as the next! Why could he not hear his thoughts! Bella had been the first person whose mind he had not been able to hear! Now there was another one! This could not be possible! This could not be coincidence!

After patting Bella reassuringly on the back after embracing he turned around to the police  officer, showing him his badge and telling him that she is now in his care as he is now her legal guardian.

He needed to extract her from this environment.  Romanov and Barton looked tense. It took a lot to make them look tense. Something was not right here. Especially, with the Cullen’s. They looked impossibly ethereal and were impossibly white. He had once read in a report about whole tourist groups disappearing in a small town called Voltera after spotting ethereally beautiful white creatures. But every mission had turned out the same: Nothing was found. These groups had just vanished and their buses were found absolutely demolished in Eastern Europe. These people seemed too similar. Just because they have not found anything yet, does not mean that they were not dangerous. It made his hair stand on end.  He should have looked into it when she had that supposed accident in Phoenix!  He should have known it! It wasn’t like her! She was normally more like his mother. Looking at her he realized that she even had lost a lot of weight! Something in this environment in Forks made her weak.

Looking at her know he saw her clinging to the pale young man. She was looking so dependent on him. Whatever this boy was he had to take her away. Fast! But he needed to find out what has really happened here and in Phoenix and unfortunately she looked as if she knew something. The way she had looked up to this Cullen when he had entered the room, before he had made his presence known. She had looked guiltily and broken.  This was not the same independent Bella he had known since her day one.

Edwards eyes suddenly changed colour to a darker shade, while Jasper had all hands full just calming everyone down. He could, however, not feel any emotion of this man; which was strange. He had to have emotions. The way he looked at Bella was caring and very worried. Alice had seen something which caused Edward to see red! What was wrong with him!  

Turning back to the Cullen’s and the Pack he finally answered them: My name is Agent Phil Coulson of the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division. I’m Bella’s Godfather and with the passing of both her parents, also her legal guardian.

“She is eighteen! She does not need a legal guardian anymore.” Edward told him smugly.

“That is correct! But both of her parents have been murdered. At exactly same time, in exactly the same way and they were on different sides of this continent. Bella is most likely still in danger and therefore in my care!” he calmly reprimanded him.

Turning to his Bella he asked: “Are you ready?” but was momentarily shocked, when she shook her head and started to tear up again: “I can’t! I would put you and Nana in terrible danger! She has killed Charlie and Mum already! She kills everyone I love”

Carefully taking Bella’s hands he calmly softly: “Who did? Who is **she**?” But Bella was just shaking her head and crying. He sighed. She was surrounded by these snow white faces and clearly terrified of something. Her “boyfriend” was almost hovering above her and for some reason the others also looked quite tense. He knew she would never talk with them in here. He had to take her to the Hub. It was the safest place at the moment and she would probably talk there.

Suddenly Bella saw the red headed woman for the first time and shrieked “Victoria!” alarming everyone in the room and confusing her godfather. She was here! Why could no one see her? _Oh god! No! This is not Victoria!_ _I see red hair and freak out!_

“I think we have to intervene” Barton whispered to his partner. “I agree, he is somehow too emotionally involved in this to think straight.” she responded stepping forward towards the groups. _Somehow_ _I doubt that she is just his goddaughter._

Addressing Carlisle and Billy she hoped to bring her point across: “In case you have forgotten! Ms. Swan is a still in danger and you do not have the means to protect her! But we on the other hand do! We have already solved similar murders and we know how to deal with these … **people** and especially how to protect our witnesses.” Turning to Bella she smiled “Oh by the way! May name is Natasha.”

“Ready?” he asked her again and this time she stood up and wanted to go with him.  The pixie wanted to rush to Bella embracing her but Clint stopped her looking pointly at her shaking his head.

Natasha made sure that none of the others came to close to Coulson’s girl. She had been in their fangs long enough.

He saw her moving through the door with her godfather and his two disciples! He had to stop her! She was his! She needed protection from the army! They did not even know what was coming for her. He was just about to run after her, grab her and run for it, when he was crushed to the wall by his massive brother Emmet.

“God dammed! Edward calm down! Otherwise you are exposing us!” Rosalie snarled.

“I don’t care!” I want Bella he hissed angrily but calmed down as Jasper focused his entire gift on him. Jacob on the other hand had to be calmed down by his father and an alpha command by Sam.

Driving in the middle car with Phil and the other two agents Bella hoped and prayed that she had made the right decision! She had not even said good bye to the others! Would Phil really be able to help and protect her? She guessed that she would find out!

“Where are we going?” she enquired curiously.

 “The Hub” her godfather smiled at her obvious confusion. “You’re going to love it!”

Unknown to them they were followed by a dark mysterious creature.

 

 

 


	3. The Hub and Fury

She is gone! They let her go with this Agent Coulson! Why had he not been able to read his mind? Was he related to Bella? Was he Rene’s brother? Was the reason why he could not enter their minds family related? If so, then was it a gift? He needed to follow her and change her as soon as possible. No more play-acting about not wanting to change her. His thoughts were interrupted by hearing Carlisle talk to the dogs.

“The army is still a threat that we need to deal with. Together. Bella may be gone for now but the army still exists and they are coming here.”

 “What do you mean for know?” Edward snapped at him. “She is gone with this psycho and we do not know if she will return or if she will keep her mouth shut.”

Carlisle whispered:”Please be reasonable. We will find her again. Charlie was her father and I’m sure that she will return to bury him. From a psychotherapeutically point of view she needs to come back in order to putting her father and her mind at rest.”

 Jacob cut in quickly asking:”Haven’t you seen in his mind where they are taking her? After all you just love poking around in everyone’s heads.”

 “His mind was blank! Like Bella there was nothing to hear and Jasper could not pick up any emotions from him either.” he justified himself in front of his quite silent family and the speechless pack. Bella’s sent was slowly fading, but he could still smell her blood. Why could he still smell her blood? Slowly following the smell he stood in front of Carlisle again. _Why does he smell after Bella’s blood? Did he bite her?_ _I’m the only one with the right to change her! She is my singer!_ Without warning he grabbed his adopted father at the throat and hauled him against the wall.

“Why do you smell after Bella’s blood? “ growled below the human hearing range. Carlise started to lift both of his arms in a defensive pose and answered his son: “Because I took five viles of her blood while she had still been unconscious! We could need her blood for luring the army in a spot away from the town to destroy them.” _What has gotten into him? I haven’t seen him like this for a long time._

* * *

 

The engines were humming in a regular pattern and Bella was fighting to not fall asleep on her godfather's shoulder. They had reached the small airport of Port Angeles in no time and gone on a small jet. It looked like a military vessel but it had colours in black and gray and an eagle symbol on the sides. Natasha the red haired woman had told her that they are going to the hub in no time. And that they would arrive soon. On the jet her "Uncle Phil" had put a blanket around her and was now sitting next to her. Sitting on the opposite side were Natasha and the other man called Barton. He had not yet presented himself to her personally but somehow he made her uneasy. "Bella?" she heard Phil ask carefully.

"We are in a plane and nobody can harm you here. Do you understand that!" She nodded hesitantly and took a deep breath.

 "Please don’t put me in a asylum for the insane!" she begged. "I shouldn't talk about it because it is so unbelievable. But please! I'm not insane!"

Phil's mental red alarm clock went up! _What has she seen that she acts so out of character?_

 _"_ Bella, I kow that you are not insane. I have seen some incredible things myself. Things you cannot even begin to imagine. Just tell me: Who is this Victoria? Does she have red hair like agent Romanov?" Bella was nodding again before she answered hesitantly. 

"Victoria is not exactly human." Hearing Phil’s sharp intake and seeing the two other agents leaning forward she stopped. Rubbing her back reassuringly he asked:"If she is not human, then what is she? A mutant, an alien or something else?" _Is he taking me seriously? Oh God! He is not joking!_

 "She's a Cold one" she choked out. "And she is after me and because of me, mum and dad are both dead!" Bella started to weep again uncontrollably. But her godfather just tried to calm her, by pulling her in an embrace and rubbing her back. _What the hell is a Cold one? She must be feeling survivor's guilt_

 _._ "I don't think that you are responsible for Rene’s and Charlie's deaths. You couldn't be." But Bella interrupted him by murmuring: "But I am! I am!"

"No you are not! Come on, what exactly is a Cold one? I've never come across that species before.

 "Vampire" she carefully whispered giving Phil almost a heart attack.  _Vampire! I should have known that something was fishy last year! I should have gone to the hospital and check on her!_ The whole story had seemed too cooked up to cover something else. Even her old ballet studio had gone up in flames.

"Your boyfriend, is he one too?" a new female voice took over for him. Bella was nodding again. "He, and his entire family. But they are different than the others of their kind." she defended them.

 "How?" _She is not seriously defending these creatures?_ he thought.

"Well, they refuse to drink human blood because they don't want to be monsters. They hunt animals and have to stay away from the sun. At least when humans are around."

"Why do they burn in the sun like Dracula?" Barton asked. His tone was teasing, but his eyes were hard. Phil was sending him a pointed look but he just shrugged. 

"No they sparkle because their skin is hard and cold like marble. Please I'm not making this up." she told him.

"Why is this Victoria after you then?" Phil wanted to know. She is not going to hurt her! I will make sure of it and even if I have to morone her on the Helicarrier.

"It's a long story" she began hesitantly again.

"Which wouldn't have anything to do with your supposed accident in your old ballet studio, right?" he asked.

 "Actually it does. Well, ahm. I was spending a day with the Cullen's when we met three nomads. Victoria, James, and Laurent. James became obsessed with my smell and wanted to ... ahm... ahm... well, eat me, but the Cullen's protected me. I knew that I would put Charlie in danger if I stayed in Forks so I fled with Jasper and Alice while Rosalie and Edward tried to distract James. But he was a tracker and made me believe that he had mum and that he would let her go if I came to the Ballet studio. So I went there to exchange myself for her freedom." Phil’s grasp tightened.

"But he had only used that stupid video tape of my first ballet class to lure me in. He attacked me there and even bit me after his games. It hurt like hell! It hurt so much! Like my entire body was on fire!" Bella was shaking in remembrance. "The Cullen's saved me by killing him. Edward sucked his venom out of my body in time otherwise I would have become a Cold one too."

Three faces with completely shocked expressions were looking at her while she was rubbing her cold scar on her right arm.

 _Damn! She is too much like me and mum! Caring for others rather than herself._ _I should have kept better contact with her. I'm a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for god's sake! I should have read the signs._

"Oh god! You should have called me! You could have died! Don't ever do that again!" he panted. Loosing Bella would have been too horrible for him! She was his biggest motivation to make the world a safer place!

"So, Victoria was his girlfriend hell bent on avenging him. Am I right?" Natasha deducted causing Bella to nod again.

"Well, You will be safe with us! If there is one agency on this planet that can stop vamps, it's ours. Right, Boss?” Barton smiled at her.

"Correct!" Phil answered him. _We will catch her and exterminate her before she can harm anyone else._

"Agents. Initiate landing. Please fasten your seat belts!" came the voice of a female pilot from the cockpit. "The director wants to see you in his office. Asap".

* * *

 

The Hub was incredible. This is where her uncle's workplace. It was huge and very bright for a modern building which appeared to be made of betony. The atrium at the entrance had a glass ceiling where she could see the dark night sky and countless stars. Bella imagined that during daylight this atrium would be even brighter using natural daylight. Although it was in the middle of the night, everywhere were busy looking agents who all looked really impressive in their black, blue or grey suits. She was walking beside her uncle, who guided her towards one of the elevators with his hand on her right upper arm. Natasha and Barton walking close behind them.  Inside the elevator she could hear her uncle say. "Floor 60 Office Director, Nicolas Fury." To her astonishment the elevator answered him: "Floor 60. Confirmed. Clearence: Agents Barton, Coulson, Romanov and witness Isabella Marie Margaret Swan. Bella couldn't help but groan. She just wanted to be called Bella and her second middle name, after her godfather’s mother, was absolutely horrible. She knew that her godfather had insisted on this name for her and her mother had unfortunately agreed. But she suddenly became quite nervous: _Director. We are going to see the boss of this agency. Hopefully he doesn't think that I'm a nutjob._

But she was not able to worry any longer as they arrived on the 60th floor to meet the director. Hopefully he was not furious as his name suggested.

The office was very spacious and had a wide view over Washington DC. Leaning on his desk was a very tall, very frightening looking, but impressive man with an eye batch. His good eye scanned Bella before he looked at Phil.

"Vampires?" his deep voice asked. _How does he know that already?_

"Yes, Sir. Did Barton leave the canal open?" he wanted to know.

 "No, Agent May did." he informed him coldly. "Miss Swan. My condolences, but you need to fill us in **immediately** about everything you know about their species. They pose a considering threat to national and international security. Because I think that you know a great deal more than you have told us. Especially, considering your irrationally hasty trip to a small Italian town called Voltera last year. This small town has folk tales about vampires and whole tourist groups are disappearing to never be seen again."

Phil was speechless again. She had left the country for a trip without his knowledge. He had a tag on her passport and on her phone to keep her safe. Fury was quite intimidating right know as he seemed angrier than usual. Knowing him it was because there was a dangerous species he had almost no Intel about. But Bella, to his astonishment, did not seem to be intimidated of him. This was more the Bella he knew before she had moved to Forks.  She straightened her shoulder, took a deep breath and started to list everything that she knew:

"They are vampires who drink blood, obviously. They have venom which can turn a human person in one of them. This venom obviously changes the cellular structure of each body as it becomes hard and cold like marble. They sparkle in the sun. Carlisle Cullen has told me that it also changes the genome. There are nomads, who move around and never stay at one place. Then there are different covens. The Cullen's and the Denali are 'vegetarians', meaning that they only drink animal blood. That's why they have bronze eyes. They are usually able to live among humans without killing them. The Cold ones who drink human blood have red eyes. They have some kind of royalty which is situated in Voltera."

She could hear Phil's sharp breathing in. _She was right in the middle of that town! In danger and he had not even been aware! He definitely needed to redefine the term danger magnet and he had to find out why he had not been informed by the authorities about her departure of US soil._

Fury with his arms crossed in front of his chest, was unreadable as ever. "They have only one rule: To protect the vampires from being found out about their existence. Suicidal vampires also go there to get killed by them."

"For god's sake, Bella. Why were you there?" he interrupted her.

 "Because Edward believed me dead and he wanted to end his life." she answered truthfully. "I could not let that happen."

 "Why did he believe you dead?" Natasha who had kept herself in the back until know asked. _Is she really talking about the same jerk I saw in the hospital?_

"Because, Alice saw me jumping off a cliff in La Push and came from Alaska to confirm it."

"You were cliff jumping!?" Phil could not believe his ears. Biting her lower lip Bella nodded and told him: "Ah!... Yeah, but it was for fun. And... a total rush!" Fury could see that she was holding some information back but she was also amusing him as she managed something no other agent had ever been able to: Making Phil lose his countenance.

 "Miss Swan, you said that Alice Hale, if I'm not mistaken, has seen you jump off a cliff and then she came from Alaska to check. How could she have **seen** you?" he remarked.

"Because she is gifted. She can see possible futures. When someone plans to do something she can see it. Edward can read minds and Jasper is an empath who can also manipulate them. Carlisle's gift is compassion. The Volturi are the more dangerous vampires as they are collecting gifted vampires." This statement shocked everyone in the room. How are they able to defeat creatures that strong and gifted. "But..." Bella hesitated to tell them.

"But what? Miss Swan!" Fury ordered. "But many of their gifts don't work on me. Edward could never read my mind. Aro, one of the Volturi leaders couldn't either. He needs to touch the person to read their minds. The twins in their guard were also unable to harm me. Jane who's power is giving pain was quite frustrated and Alec could not paralyse me. I do not know why. I thought that there was something wrong with me."

"That is certainly interesting!" Fury grinned. Phil did not like Fury's grin. He was scheming and Bella was certainly in the centre. "These gifts. Were they pre-existing or did the show up with the transformation?"

"Carlisle thinks that they were pre-existing." she answered.

 _This is fishy._ "Why did they let you go? Whole tourist groups are disappearing but you come out unharmed. Was there some kind of a deal?" Barton jumped in the conversation. Bella suddenly found the floor very interesting, but nodded slowly. "They let me go with the promise to become one of them.“

 


	4. Exchange of information

“What?! You are not becoming one of them! Do you hear me?” Phil shouted at her, shaking her as if it would help him to knock some sense into her. He was terrified for her! The other three people in the room where shocked too. Even Fury. This situation became more complicated by the minute.

Bella nodded:”You don’t understand! At that time I wanted to. There was nothing I could think about except that he was gone! I even had horrible nightmares which woke Charlie up every night, had no appetite and no will to live on! It was like a hole had been ripped from my heart or as if something had been missing.” Phil resumed a protective stance once again and hugged her.

Fury shared pointed looks with Natasha and Barton. He knew that Phil was too close to Bella to think straight and therefore his opinion about her was biased. He needed her to make tests. He knew that she was not crazy. There was evidence enough, but she had been under the creatures’ influence for some time.

“What about now?” he enquired. Bella shook her head. “I don’t know! I really don’t know. I still love Edward. I really do, but he has changed so much after we came back from Italy. But I still miss him”

“How did he change? Did he become possessive and restricting your contact with other people?” Natasha took over again. Bella nodded again. “He was jealous about Jacob, my best friend from the Rez and his pack. He told me that I could not go to see them because they were dangerous.”

 _Isn’t it the other way round?_ “Why did he think that they are dangerous? Because they are taking steroids?” Barton asked. But Bella bit her lip again:” They are not on steroids, but they have some anger management issues.”

“Please don’t tell me that they are supernatural too?” Phil sighed and to his relief Bella shook her head. “I would not call them supernatural, because they were born this way and it is in their genome. But they are called protectors by their people because they are the vampires’ natural enemies. They are human with additional gifts.”

“What are these gifts?” Fury needed to know. There was so much that his agency did not know and that was a dangerous disadvantage. “Please, don’t harm the pack or the tribe. There are only a few who have the gene. And if the vampires are gone, then they don’t change anymore.” she begged. _Oh God! I cannot tell the tribe’s secret! What if they incarcerate them?_

“What change?” Fury stressed. “They are six shape shifters protecting the area around Forks from Vampires before they can attack humans. Most of the time they were successful in preventing an attack. Victoria must have a gift of evasiveness, because she could always slip away before they could kill her. Please! They are no danger for human. They protect them. Without them there would be much more dead bodies”. Bella defended them.

 “So that’s why the man in the wheelchair wanted you in the reservation?” Phil, who had finally recovered himself, asked.

“Because I would have been surrounded by the pack members, but put the other tribe members in danger.” Bella confirmed. Fury started to walk around pensively with his right hand rubbing his chin until he seemed to come to a conclusion. 

“Ms. Swan. You are now within S.H.I.E.L.D. I want you to sit with a sketch artist immediately on floor 7. We need to know how Victoria looks so that we can check all CCTV for any sign of her. You will write everything you know about them in a file. And I mean everything!” he ordered.  Bella nodded hesitantly. Phil had the strong urge to hug her again, because Fury seemed quite frightening again, even for him. “And while you are here you will start basic combat training.” he finished.

Bella’s eyes almost bulged out. She was extremely clumsy and there was no way that she would survive that without injuring herself or even her trainer. Her uncle seemed to have the same idea: “With all the respect sir, but I don’t think that combat training is something for her. She has a tendency for accidents.”

But Fury did not want to hear any of it: “Stop mollycoddling her, Agent Coulson! Sooner or later we will have to face the vampires and she will have to be able to fight. There is no time to lose. In the meantime we need to gather intelligence about them.”

Phil knew that his director was correct, but it was also the beginning of turning her into an S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. This was something that he had not wanted for her and Fury had always enquired about her.  She had not even finished high school, for god’s sake!

“Sir, she will also need to finish her exams.“ he mentioned. _She_ _needs something normal in her life at least._ Fury nodded:”Can be arranged, but only shortly before the exams start and definitely not in Forks!”

Bella was grateful for that. _Mum and Dad would have liked to see me graduate._

“Romanov and Barton, please take Ms. Swan to Agent Smith. He has to start with the sketch of our target, asap.” Seeing Bella looking confused at Coulson he said:”Agent Coulson will join you in a few minutes. We need to work out the details of your safety and your … status.” 

“It’s ok, Bella!” he reassured her in a calm voice and she seemed to relax and followed the two other agents, leaving the director and her uncle behind in the spacious office.

 

* * *

 

“I suppose she does not know!” Fury addressed him again. “No, she does not. And I plan to keep it that way.” he answered only to see Fury’s raised eyebrow which indicated that he did not agree.

“She may not know at the moment, but she will eventually figure it out. Just make sure that she finds it out from you and not from a third party.”

“She is clever yes, but there is no evidence. I erased everything from the database. No one except us knows about it. I did not want her to be in danger, but unfortunately I failed to calculate in other dangers.” he answered truthfully and slightly defeated.

 Fury did not answer him but handed him a tablet to look at. Phil took it confused and looked at it. “These are Bella’s scores in every subject she took in her school career in Phoenix. She is above average intelligence, but has obviously held herself back for reasons unknown.” 

“How do you know that! You cannot see this just from her scores! We both know that scores do not always reflect everything.” he asked him.

“No. If you scroll over, you can see **our** results. She was tested every three years while residing in Phoenix. Science, Geography, Economy, Language and several other fields of interest. As you probably know she has been a frequent visitor of different libraries to enhance her knowledge.”

Phil could not believe it. _Why has Fury tested her? When? Who has tested her?_

“You want her to become an S.H.I.E.L.D agent? Don’t you?” he asked defeated. It was the only logical explanation. But he did not like it. He wanted her to have a good life, without the difficulties of his job, but it seemed that this decision had already been taken out of his hands. At least his mother and he had chosen this job, but she would be thrown into it. He had known that she had a huge appetite for knowledge and books, especially Jane Austen, but never in his boldest dreams had he believed that she was this intelligent. She seemed to come more after his side, but Renee had also been an intelligent one. The numbers on Fury’s tablet were clear. She must have been bored to death in Forks.  Maybe her scientific curiosity had drawn her to the vampires.

“When she is finished with the sketch artist I want you to fly to our facility in Nevada and we will begin her training there.” Fury told him.

“Bright, hot sunshine and the best CCTV of our facilities. She can even prepare for her exams with all the scientists stationed there. Good enough for you, Agent Coulson?”

 “Yes, sounds like a plan and I will start her training there.” he agreed happily because he knew how impeccably tight the security was there. Most of the scientists stationed in the facility were only a few years older than her and could probably help her a lot. But unfortunately his smile was wiped off his face with Fury’s next nugget of information:

”No, you won’t train her! I need you in the field. You are going to stay with her at the facility, but someone else will train her.” _This is not right! I should be the one to train her! I’m her … Arrghh!_

“Who is training her?” he wanted to know. _Please let it not be Agent Romanov. Not Romanov! Not Romanov!_

“Agent Romanov will take over her physical training in combat and I will assign Agent Harkness to take over her introduction to fire arms!”  Phil’s opened and closed his mouth again in a rapid succession. Natasha Romanov was known for being ruthless in training. Many hard agents were turned into mush by her and have even been seen crying like little girls.

“But Romanov will be too hard on her! It could break her spirit and Harkness jumps everything that moves.” he opposed. _Now I also have to protect her from my own agency! Great!_

“You should give her more credit! I would not assign her to these two if I didn’t believe that she was capable of handling it.” Fury defended his position. “Romanov will get her in shape and there is no need to worry about Harkness as she is still too young for him. But you will definitely have to worry in a few years time!” Fury chuckled.

 _In a few years time I will make sure that they are on opposite parts of the world._ Phil thought _._  “You are right!” he grudgingly confirmed: “If anyone can teach her the use of handguns without scaring her. Then it is him. But he better keep his hands to himself!”

 

* * *

 

 The sketch artist called Agent Smith was a small, stocky man with light grey hair and friendly eyes. Bella was fascinated as Victoria’s face became more tangible by the second on the screen. She had expected him to draw on a piece of paper, but he surprised her by drawing on a touch pad and together with her descriptions they even created a 3-d-model of her huntress, which seemed very realistic. This man had even congratulated her on her fantastic memory and all the details she could remember. She wondered where her uncle was. What was he talking about with Fury? Her? Looking at Victoria’s picture she couldn’t help but feel angry at her but she also missed Edward very much. She could feel the slight yearning to be in his embrace again. Unrealised by her, her hands started shaking uncontrollably. Barton and Natasha realized that something was amiss.

“Do you need anything else Agent Smith?” Barton asked.

“No, this should be enough to work with! Good Luck, Ms. Swan!” he added friendly. Bella nodded a thank you and followed the other two to a free room on the same floor. It looked like a very small conference room or a free office surrounded by glass windows, where everyone could see into. Barton put a laptop on the table, tipped something on the computer and told her to write everything she knew about the creatures in the file.

 “You have to start with the general descriptions first and then get into more detail.” he explained seeing that her tremors began to also affect her arms. There was no way she would be able to tip this into the file.

 _Oh god I need water!_  “Could I have some water?” she asked pleadingly, getting a nod from Natasha who went out to get one. In the meantime Barton secretly activated the cameras. _Something is not right! She looks like a junky with first signs of withdrawal. Maybe we should run a blood test and see if there is something unusual about it._ Pushing the laptop in front of her Bella tried to hold her hands still but realised that she could not hold still because they were trembling.


	5. Complications

“What is happening?” she stuttered looking bewildered at her trembling hands. Barton did not know, but trying to stay objective he asked:”Do you take any substances we should know about, like steroids, LSD, Heroin?” But he was interrupted by a heavily objecting Bella:

”No. Of course not!  I don’t take any kind of drugs but coffee does not count and I do not drink alcohol, because I’m not 21 years yet. I know what the substances can do to my body and especially my mind. I stayed clear of all these things because I’ve seen in Phoenix what it could do!”

Looking at Barton’s questioning face she elaborated: ”I saw a girl from school on a party once who had been so drunk that she did not care what the boys were doing to her. It was so disgusting! The whole party was! She has managed to get herself pregnant and had no idea who the father had been. She even had caught genital warts and Hepatitis.”

Barton had watched her facial expression very closely and even her micro-expressions had been consistent with what she had told him. She was telling the truth. But how had she found out about the illnesses of the other girl.

“How did you find out about the genital warts of the other girl? Did she tell you?” he enquired but Bella suddenly found the laptop very interesting.

“Bella?” he asked carefully. But she only sighed once and murmured:”The girl was one of the most popular girls at school, often bullied me and she actually tried to convince other girls to get pregnant too, because then they could raise their children together. Me, being one of the most unpopular girls tried to reason with the others. They had plans to get pregnant on another big party. Can you believe that! So I did the only possible thing I could do to stop it!”

“You reported them to the headmaster?” Barton asked hopefully, but was expecting something more.  Fury had shown interest in her after all. There had to be more about her. Trying to calm her shaking hands she shook her head and blushed:”Well, I sort of hacked her medical record and transferred the information about her genital warts and hepatitis to all the screens in school simultaneously so that everyone could see it and also wrote comments under it to warn the other girls. She fell from all graces and became the most hated girl in school this day. Luckily, no one found out it was me.”

Barton mouth was agape and he fought unsuccessfully not to start laughing. It seemed that the girl could fight well intellectually. She had been right. The Headmaster and the parents would not have been able to stop these kids. They would only have gotten the kids more determined. _God! Please don’t let me get on her bad side!_

Outside of the office Natasha informed Coulson about Bella’s obvious signs of withdrawal.

“Natasha. She would never take any substances like that. She is too reasonable for that.” he defended her. “She knows everything about them.”

 _Maybe she suffers from withdrawal from the vampire boy Edward._ “Sir, I’m not suggesting that she is using them willingly, but I have phoned Agent Gareth in Seattle to get her all her files which are not yet in the computer system to find out if she had been suffering from similar symptoms. In the meantime I suggest that she is examined and a blood sample is taken from her.” _Come on Coulson. Normally you are not so dim witted!_

To Coulson’s obvious confused look she elaborated. “Earlier, she said that she went to Voltera to safe her ‘dear’ Edward, because he had believed her to be dead. They must have been separated for him to believe that. If my theory is correct then he is the one she is addicted to.”

 _Why did I not see that! I’m not in my right mind with Bella_. “You mean pheromones?” he asked.

 _Now you are getting it_. “Yes, she was always surrounded by the vamps! So there had to have been a constant level of airborne pheromones. And she was exposed to it over a long time.”

 “Alright, bring the water to her. I’ll call Dr. Morris in the examination ward. Don’t tell Bella yet, because she hates hospitals or everything connected to it.”  With a final nod Natasha went back to the office.

Coulson thought that pheromones could be the reason for Bella’s state. He was sure that she would never touch any kind of drugs: After all his mother had been very diligent to inform her about them.  He remembered when he had once come to visit his mother after a particular hard case only to find Bella with her. Renee had visited New York and left Bella with his elderly mother. But what has shocked him even more was Bella’s disgusted face: His mother Peggy Coulson had actually informed Bella of everything drug related and had even shown her pictures of junkies and taken her to the hospital to show her. Bella had only been ten years old. She had repeated a similar procedure when Bella was thirteen. But at that age she had shown her pictures of different sexually transmitted diseases so that she would be able to check for them should she ever decide to engage in physical activities like that. She had even suggested that she should not sleep with any man before he had not given her a full blood check.  Asking his mother why she had such a shocking approach for Bella she had told him that she had only wanted the best for her and she needed to know, because the educational system was terribly lacking and many young men still did not care about women. When he had argued that she was still too young for that talk she had coldly scolded him: “Better much too early than way too late, Phillip and I don’t trust Renee with this topic!”

Entering with a big mug of fresh water Natasha saw an amused Barton tipping everything Bella dictated him in the laptop. Her tremors had intensified. Somehow Bella must have managed to get his respect in the meantime, because his demeanour had changed and he seemed more relaxed now than he had earlier.  Giving Bella the mug she received a thankful smile and Bella managed to hastily drink the water in one gulp. _She must be parched._ The file was getting more detailed by the second with their joint effort but it was also obvious that Bella fought hard not only to control the tremors of her hands and arms but also to keep her eyes open. Technically her parents had been murdered the day before and apart from her involuntary nap in the hospital late at night she had not slept at all.

Unknown to the others Bella really wished to be in Edwards embrace once again and to smell him again. His scent had always been so intoxicating and she really missed it. Somehow she knew that she needed him to stop her tremors, but on the other hand she also felt slowly growing anger swelling in her heart against him. _Do I really love him? Do I really love Jake? Has Edward done something to her? Why do I love them?_ Answering Barton’s questions on the different vampires she realised that perhaps she did not know everything about her favourite coven. Perhaps they have kept secrets and special gifts from her. Rosalie never seemed to have a gift and Emmet had apparently always been very strong. What if they just haven’t told her? What about the gifts from the Denali coven. They had never told her about their gifts. Did she really want to become a vampire? When she had been with the Cullens she had been so sure and determined to become one, but as soon as she had visited the pack she had had doubts. Was this the reason why Edward had tried to keep her away from the reservation? Did she really know everything about him? After all, he had always effectively evaded questions about his past. What if he had killed people? Why could she not stop her trembling?

 

* * *

 

„Thank you for coming.“ Carlisle greeted the newly arrived members of the Denali family. Hearing that an army of newborns was coming to Forks he had called them immediately for help.  Half an hour later they arrived in the Cullen house.

Sam had reluctantly agreed to meet them there because they needed all the help they could get to protect the area. But it would also mean that more people carrying the werewolf gene were forced to transform. Strangely enough: Billy had also started to show signs of nearing transformation. A few hours after Bella’s departure he had accidently hit his foot on the hospital door and realised that he could feel it. His body temperature had also started to rise. Maybe his best friend’s death had worked as a catalyst for activating the gene. He was feeling sad about Charlie’s death, but also incredibly angry against Victoria, the Cullens and any kind of leeches.

“Qué mal olor!” (What a stench!) Carmen exclaimed, crinkling her nose while entering the house. She had never smelt anything as terrible as that. It smelled like a long haired wet dog after playing in a dung heap.

“You don’t have to breathe.” her husband reminded her. “But according to Carlisle we need to form an alliance.”

But looking at the pack members the blond vampire which looked like an almost twin to Rosalie had to be held back by her sisters as she wanted to avenge her Laurent. “I cannot do this.” she hissed. “They have killed him!”

 


	6. Hospital ward

He was looking worriedly at the heavily shaking girl in the bed. Dr. Morris in the examination ward had given her several infusions already and ordered her to drink a lot to flush out the pheromones in her blood stream. After her shaking had intensified in the office Bella and she had not been able to concentrate or focus on anything she had been taken to this ward and then pushed further to the hospital ward. Normally agents wouldn’t stay this long in the hospital ward, but as she had been exposed to some unknown pheromones so she had to stay until they were fully flushed out of the system and the technical analysts had fully examined them and ideally could find an antidote for them. Phil had fortunately been allowed to stay with her because he was the person she knew best in her new surroundings and had a calming effect on her. Simons had been a tad bit to giddy for him to examine the pheromones: Especially as they were still lingering in her bloodstream. Normal ones would have been out of her system after only a few seconds.  Phil’s heart was clenching horribly seeing his only remaining family member besides his mother and estranged sister suffer horribly from withdrawal.  Even Fury had come down once to check on her progress and requested to see the results of her blood test, which caused his mouth to become a very thin line and it took a lot to cause an emotional reaction from his boss.

Phil had seen the blood test earlier and was fast becoming angrier against the damned bloodsucking species. Normally he was able to calm himself at his job, but it seemed that it was true that all his mental defence mechanisms which he had built up over the years were useless in face of danger for loved ones. The vamps were dangerous and they had done this to her. He would make sure that they would never lay a hand at her again. She had a whole cocktail of pheromones inside her blood, not just one specific one. Simmons had found primer and releaser pheromones which cause a behavioural change from the recipient, sex pheromones similar used by insects to attract and trap the opposite sex, aphrodisiac pheromones and also several allomones. Bottom line: She had been drugged over a longer period of time and been made very susceptible to suggestions. That is why she had not been herself.

Had he come to her after the Phoenix incident he would probably seen that something was amiss. He should never have believed Renee. Unfortunately even Natasha’s theory had turned out correct as Agent Gareth had stolen her file from the hospital. It was consisting of everything that could not yet be found in the computer or in the old outdated hospital computer system. Interestingly he had finally found it after a long search in Dr. Cullen’s office. He even had taken the liberty of downloading everything from the computer in his office with a little help from a special USB stick invented by Stark Industries. Including all the contacts in the cache. He had suggested putting the area under close surveillance using satellites as there was definitely something going on in the woods. “Never before have I seen wilderness with that much movement” he had told them. Agent Barton was in the surveillance room trying to piece the confusing information from the different satellites together. There movement around the town of Forks and the Reservation looked very coordinated. The satellites were showing incredibly large wolves running in circles around the town and the reservation. He was also able to make out very fast movement coming from Canada and Alaska and one big entity which originated in Seattle. His other colleagues in the control room had absolutely no idea what they should make out of the information. Knowing the high death rate, which had increased over the last few month in this town he estimated that it had to be a stronghold of vampires. And they were gradually moving towards the town which had held the girl Bella Swan until a few days ago. Unfortunately, as they were watching the small town at the moment, other things could go unnoticed by the agency. Fury had made the vampires a priority as they were posing an imminent threat against the people in the area.

 “She has reached the peak a few hours ago. She will get better from now on.” Morris brought him back to the present in his southing voice. But Phil did not hear him clearly as he was worrying too much.

 

* * *

 

Natasha was currently diligently analysing the data from the Cullen’s computer and would present her findings in an hour sharp. The stolen file confirmed that Bella had gone through some kind of withdrawal before, but it had been nowhere near her state now.

"Bloody Hell!" Natasha exclaimed startling all the other hard working agents around her. Dr. Cullen had kept a very pedantically diligent file about Bella, her countless injuries, her blood and her mental state. The doctor seemed to be obsessed with her blood as Natasha could detect some written hesitancy in Bella being Edward’s singer. _Whatever that is?_  

Apparently Bella’s blood smelled “divine” in contrary to others. But even more startling were the uncountable scans of old texts of vampires. Unfortunately Natasha was not fluent in Portuguese, but she had enough knowledge of other Roman languages and Latin to understand the texts. It seemed that the texts were of South American origin talking about the unison of a male vampire and an untouched female human. The legends spoke of an offspring having the best of both species. Was this doctor some kind of Dr. Frankenstein, Dr. Mengele or worse? Did he want Bella to become one of these mothers?

 _Oh God!_ But the legends always seemed to end with the horrible death of the mother. _Over my dead body!_ Having her fair share of experimenting on herself she did not want any other woman to go through what she had gone through.

Connected to the data were notes which indicated, that he seemed to look for a way around that. Bella must have been his lab rat. But another thing that made her uneasy was the detailed description of Bella's scar on her right lower arm.:

_“…Bella survived a normally fatal attack of the vampire James. (Tracker) Edward having had no human blood since April 20 th 1933 was able to draw the venom out of her without killing her. It is a very rare occurrence which will be subject of this enquiry. She has suffered no staying repercussions on her body except a scar. This scar has a noticeably lower temperature then the rest of the body and also the texture around the scar is different and seems to be of marble composition. Is there some residual venom in her? If yes, is it James’ or Edward’s? If it is Edward’s then his now overprotective nature could be explained by his residual venom. Maybe it functions as a catalyst, that she is drawn even more to him. Marco Rimpaldi (1789) indicated that our species might be able to control their singer, by establishing a physical connection….”_

Natasha suddenly was feeling more than a little uneasy.  _If she has still venom in her blood then why is it not spreading?_

Further into the depth of the data she detected collected DNA material of vampires and one other species which indicated that they were indeed different to humans. _That we can work with!_ Maybe they could identify the specific DNA markers of the special gifts and blockade them. The techies in the agency would certainly love taking the DNA apart. But that meant that they needed samples.  _We have to rid the Swan girl from the scar. It could be a ticking time bomb and it could work as a sample. How deep does it go into her body? Is it just the surface? On the skin? If it is only on the skin than how deep does it go into the epidermis?_ _Can we remove it without spreading the venom?_

 

* * *

 

Bella was feeling that the shaking of her entire body became less and she was slowly able to get the control over her limps back. She had hated how vulnerable she had felt and also how her mind had tricked her. Losing control over her mind and body had always been one of her worst nightmares and in the last few days, at least it felt like it had been days, she had the old dream of being left alone in the woods over and over again. She had even dreamt of marrying Edward until the whole reception became a blood bath. Some dreams where filled with Charlie telling her that she was responsible for his death and her mothers and that she had to return to Forks in order to pay for her crimes. Each time she had woken up Phil had been holding one hand and with the other hand he had been stroking her hair. Even now. Phil had never left her side and was currently sitting beside her, holding her hand just talking to her about unimportant things. Ironically the last time she had held the hand of an adult for support it also had been him.

 He had visited her seemingly out of the blue and had asked Renee if he could spend a week with her, because he had needed a week off. Renee seizing the opportunity had naturally allowed him to watch over her while she had decided on going on a short holiday with her current boyfriend. One Bella had hated immensely. It had been one of the best days of her childhood until she had mentioned abdominal pain on her right side which had gradually become worse. Having realized the rare opportunity of her godfather’s holiday she had ignored the slight pain until it had become unbearable. When he had rushed her to the hospital she had had an emergency surgery because her appendix had needed immediate removal.  He had been there with her the whole time, staying with her in the recovery room and one of the nurses had told her that he had even watched the surgery like a hawk. Her nana, coming from New York had eventually showed up, bringing him fresh clothes as he had refused to go home and leave her alone in the hospital. He had told her over and over again what a grown up girl she had been and how proud he had been of her, but if she would do something like that again he would become angry at her. Her nana had given her a secret wink and had whispered:”He cannot be angry at you.”  When Renee had came home from her little trip she had felt very guilty for not having called once, as she had assumed that everything was fine.

Now Phil looked tired and he also had small stubbles over his face. Bella had overheard the doctor, Fury and the scientists discussing her current state while they had believed her to be asleep. Hearing that she had been drugged by the Cullen’s sparked a very strong distaste against them. _Do they know what they have done to me?_ She had a hard time believing it. 

 _No! They probably don’t know!_ _They love me! All of them. Except Rosalie._ _But what if they do know_?

Was it the reason, why she should have married Edward so soon?  But the more her shaking lessened, the angrier she became with them. Edward had regularly trespassed into her room and into her house. At the beginning of their relationship she had not even known. It was certainly creepy. Then he had just kept it up. What would have happened if she had said no! Would he have killed her? No. That would have violated the treaty. And Alice. She had filled her closet with new, very expensive clothes and she had even stolen her old clothes, so that she had to wear the new ones.  But as she had seemed so innocent she had not been able to be angry at her. She had just been annoyed. What would have come next? Personality change to fit into the family?

_No right, according to Phil I had a severe personality change!  I became weak! They made me weak and dependent. Reflecting at her behaviour back in Forks she realized that she had been completely dependent on Edward._

It had not been her. She had stopped listening to her other favourite music. Yes, she loved classic, but in Phoenix she had loved other styles and genres too. Her music repertoire had ranged from classic, to rock, pop and folk music. Even some heavy metal songs had been to her liking. Depending on her mood her music taste had varied. She should not have left her violin in Phoenix. She had wanted to take her with her but Renee had told that she would send it to her but had forgotten it. She had adjusted everything in her life to their liking. In Phoenix everyone had always remarked that she was mentally more mature than her mother as she had made sure that everything in the household went smoothly. As much as she had loved her mother, who had acted more like an older sister she would have liked more parenting from her. She had not given her any rules or boundaries to cross. Her grandmother had been strict with her when she visited her.  This had been a shock at first as she had not been used to it, but she had always called her when she had a problem and had not been able to call Phil, because he had been unavailable.

Now, she decided that she wanted to become the strong Bella again. Maybe she had been played by the vampires and Jacob had been right all along. She would go over everything she had told this agency and try to remember everything the Cullens had told her. In her state she had to have forgotten something. Maybe they could train her! She needed to become stronger again and being able to resist outer influence, especially vampires. They also had to find a solution for the Volturi. They were killing bus tours on a regular basis, destroying hopes, families and friendships.  All they were seeing was food. They could not see that they were creating suffering in all the families who had no idea what has happened to their loved ones. She knew that she would have closure with her parents’ death as she knew what has happened to them. Perhaps her uncle’s agency was able to cook something up to destroy them. She had seen glimpses of the technology used in this building. It looked so advanced to everything else out in the public. And the more pressing problem was that she had promised to become one of them after all. Lying in this bed however, she had absolutely no desire to become a leech. Not now and not in the future. Immortality was not natural for the human race and she would not know what to do with herself. Spending all her time just with vampires, far away from her loved ones, from the sun she loved so much? She shuddered at the thought. Her time would not be precious anymore. Did she really want to repeat high school again and again like life in an infinity loop and being stared at? Absolutely not! Spending all her time with the Cullens seemed like a highly annoying and boring time now. Alice would probably drag her around all the major cities of high fashion and use her as a walking doll without being interested in her desires.  Esme would play the loving mother hen and try to mother her to no end and be very upset if she would not get the chance to do that.  Rosalie would hate her and make her feel that. Jasper would constantly manipulate her moods and her feelings on a daily basis. Edward would control her every step and she would not be able to make her own decisions. She would not be able to taste her grannies favourite fruity raspberry cake she loved so much, no more hot chocolate brownies, no more really spicy hot food. No more coffee, no more tea!  God I’m starved! She really was hungry, which had to be a good sign. And the only thing she would be craving would be blood! She would become a monster! They had tried reverse psychology on her while she had been in her vulnerable mental state! Clever. Well. Never trust a vampire.  As soon as she would be out of this bed and she would have eaten something substantial she would make it her first priority to start her physical and mental training. She owed it to her dead parents. They should not have died in vain. No! They won’t have died in vain! She will make honour them by making this world a safer place. Just like Phil and his mother!

* * *

 

Meanwhile in Forks:

Everyone was rushing into the unused kitchen, where they had heard one of the horribly expensive vases crash. Alice was standing petrified. All the vampires, bronze eyed and red eyed waiting for the army to come were waiting for her to finally come out of her stupor and say something.

“Alice! What did you see?” Edward, not being able to still his curiosity, urged. It had to have something with his Bella. In the last two days her future had been very fuzzy. Alice had not been able to pick anything clear up from her future. Only a few snatches, which were not making sense. She had seen Bella sitting in a huge office, Bella with tall intimidating one eyed man, her standing between a man in a green cape and a red cape who were ready to rip themselves into pieces, her with Agent Coulson, her in a hospital shaking uncontrollably, but also Bella in Forks in their special clearing, and his favourite snatch had been Bella in a white dress standing next to him.

“Her future just disappeared!” Alice cried.

 “Is she dead?” Esme asked her worriedly.

“Did Victoria get to her?” Emmet wanted to now, looking murderous.

“No! She ..ah.. decided to not come back… to us!”

“Clever girl!” Rosalie smiled.

“But. We are her family now!” Esme cried. “She has no one after her father’s death. She needs us.”

Carlisle trying to defuse the situation for the moment suggested: “Perhaps we should concentrate on defeating the army now. After that we can worry about Bella.” He did not want to admit it to the others that he was worried about Bella as he already saw her as a daughter and she had promised the Volturi to become one of them. She had no chance but to become one of them. But he could not help but feel uneasy at the thought what she had to endure first until she would be granted immortality. He had not dared to inform his family of his commission of their royalty. It was going against everything he believed in, but for his covens to receive immunity from them he had to give them something in return and this was the only thing he could give them. He was seen as the leader of the “vegetarian covens” and therefore their representative. He had to choose between one life and all his covens so he chose his covens. Bella would have eternity to forgive him. His family would understand then. One of the Volturi seers had predicted that Bella would have a very unique gift which was very interesting for the collecting Volturi. Now they had to survive the army tomorrow, but with all the extra Cold Ones in his house they were an army themselves. Even the wolf pack had grown substantially. He was confident, that they could defeat them. Then they had to find Bella as soon as possible. If Alice had lost sight of her future then it could mean that she did not want to have anything to do with them anymore and that would jeopardize his entire plan.  The fight tomorrow could also decimate the wolves. On the one hand he hated sending them to their deaths because he loved living things and had respect of life, but the strategist in him told him that they would just become a liability in getting Bella. Especially Jacob, who had become even angrier with her absence. According to Edward he could only control his temper by thinking about her. Tomorrow would be an interesting day!

 


	7. The Battle

An eerie silence was slowly spreading through the woods. Nothing dared to move. It seemed as if nature itself was holding its breath. It was literally the calm before the storm. But nobody could anticipate the ferocity of the upcoming storm. Not even the sensitive ears of both species surrounding the trap were able to pick up anything. Not even insects.

 Until late at night both vampires and werewolves had planned the upcoming battle diligently. They both knew that nothing should go wrong. For all their sakes. It had helped of course a lot that they had several centuries’ old war veterans among them. They knew many strategies and the wolves knew the terrain.

Jacob was planning on killing as much leeches as possible. Each killed vampire was one less to hurt Bella or his tribe. He wanted to see her again. Old Quil who rarely left the confinements of his house had ended his solitude as there has never been a pack the size of now and he had talked to the spirits. Jacob still had doubts about talking to the spirits, but on the other hand his pack and vampires are also creatures of legend. They had been forced to create a whole new commando structure as there were too many people sharing their minds. There were now several packs connected with each other through their Alpha Billy Black. Billy was able to mentally connect the other alphas mentally and the alphas were able to give commands to their pack members. But together they formed one big pack. Through his first transformation Billy had become the Chief Alpha. Sam, Jacob and Jared were the Sub Alphas of the other packs. Quil had told them that he should expect another Bella coming home than he was used to as the spirits had foreseen that she would come back differently.  And he had also told them to not trust the Cullens as they were having an ulterior motive with Bella. When they had tried to question him further he had refused to say more.

 _“Prepare! They are coming!”_ he heard his father’s voice in his mind while transferring it to his members. He even sent them a mental picture from his surveillance spot high up the mountains.  They had spotted the army and the fight was about to begin any second. Alice had placed a blood trail of Bella’s blood together with a blouse she has stolen from her room.

The Cullens were waiting in the clearing ready to kill the newborns. The other ones were surrounding it in almost a circle. The only way inside the clearing was the blood trail laid out for the newborns. The wolves were in the second circle further away because their odour or stench as the leeches had called it, would have overlaid Bella’s delicate “flowery” scent. All they needed to was to wait until they were all in the huge clearing. His heart was beating faster. Out of anticipation or fear he did not know. All he knew was that he had to protect his pack and kill as many vampires as possible. Unfortunately they were also bound to the treaty which meant that they could not kill one of the other vampires fighting the newborns as collateral damage. He only hoped that they would see it the same way.

All of a sudden he could see several leeches appear in the clearing, who stopped once they saw the waiting Cullens. This was their deadly mistake as they were dispatched from all sides within a blink of an eye. Some of the Vampires hiding in the first circle were attacking together with the Cullens. Loose limbs and heads flew left and right through the air and were caught by vampires and wolves. Jacob was in a state similar to a blood rush. All he could see were the vampires that he tore to pieces together with his pack. The cracks of the vampires torn apart only heightened his lust for the hunt and kill. None of the leeches had been able to scream or warn the others as everything was happening so fast and more and more vampires were constantly streaming into the clearing only to be dispatched by them. Through his father’s eyes the packs were able to see who they should attack next and when. Their smell was revolting and he looked forward to burning them. The smoke would cleanse the air from their stench.

“ _Leah, watch out!”_

Jacob shouted to her in his mind but she had blocked him out completely as she was lost to the same blood rush. He could feel her pain as one of the four escaped newborns was trying to crush her body and to kill her. Seth completely terrified of losing his sister lost focus and rushed towards her only to be caught from another one. Jacob knew that he could not rush to help them in time to safe them, but he had to rescue them.  The Cullens seemed to not notice their predicament. The pain was getting worse as Seth was also experiencing bones getting crushed. Sam, having decapitated another one left the rest of the body to the younger wolves and ordered several older wolves to attack the four escaped newborns. Jacob, waking from his stupor which could have been a fatal mistake ordered some of his pack to do the same. After a very sever and harsh joint fight they were able to finally defeat the four vampires, which were the only ones left in the clearing. There were four big piles of torn limbs and heads of vampires. Emmet looking satisfied like a cat which had swallowed a canary started to burn them by using flamethrower. Where had got this device all of a sudden was a mystery to the wolves.

“The redhead and Riley are trying to escape!” Billy informed them sending them a mental image. _“_

 _Young ones guard the wounded and bring them to the Rez! The rest follow me!”_ Jacob snarled and transferred the commands to the other alphas. “ _We are ending this now!”_

 They speeded after the two escaping vampires who were not allowed to escape otherwise they would come back with another army. They could not let that happen. Some of the Cullens were following them. Carlisle, Esme and Rosalie stayed back in the clearing and wanted to assess the wounds of the two wounded Clearwaters but the young pack members did not let them pass. They had been ordered to protect them! Old Quil had warned them of the Cullens after all.

Edward was able to catch up with Victoria first and tackled her to the ground. Riley, hearing her heart shattering cry stopped and tried to help his lover by attacking Edward. He sent him back flying against a stone wall full force. The redhead leapt up and tried to escape once again, but was pinned down again by a very angry, blood thirsty russet coloured wolf. It seemed that her luck has run out, but she would not give up with a fight! He was pinning her to the ground with his monstrously big paws. But luckily for her he was not paying any attention on to the rest of her body as he seemed to only be interested in her face.

_Is he looking for fear?_

She would not give him the satisfaction.

 _What is he waiting for?_ _This has to be a male wolf!_

Completely ignorant to her other parts of her body. As he was holding her wriggling form down, waiting for his pack to catch up with him he failed to notice that she was about to do something with a terrible effect on his health. 

She shot her feet up to Jacobs form and began to squeeze his lower back, braking parts of his hip bones. As she was not able to get further because of his size. Feeling his hipbones braking he howled in pain and almost let Victoria get away but being one Alpha he was able to block out his pain for a second, snapped his jaw at her throat and ripped her head clean off. He would never underestimate a vampire again!

 _Bah! She even tastes like filth! I have to wash my mouth as soon as I get home_.  

In the meantime the rest of the Cullens dispatched the younger vampire Riley before he could harm their brother, while the other pack members were dissembling the other parts of Victoria’s body in order to burn them. They had survived. He could not believe it. Realizing this, the pain came back full force and he had to lie down. It hurt so much. He was lucky having such a size; otherwise she would have broken his back too. But it hurt! Counting his pack members he realized that he was not able to make out the minds of the Clearwaters! Were they mortally wounded? Were they dead? Getting on his feet again moving as fast as his injuries allowed he moved back towards the clearing. Through his father’s eyes he could see the most peculiar thing. The younglings were protecting the Clearwaters while Carlisle tried again and again to get to them. He pleaded to them that their bones were healing wrongly and would make them cripples if they did not let him help them. “Let him through! But keep an eye on him!” Jacob ordered them while hobbling to the clearing. They had transformed back to their human forms, which was why he was not able to hear them. But they were curiously silent which could only mean that their bodies had shut down. The other vampires were just standing around and looking at the display. Sickly sweet smoke was everywhere wafting around the clearing. Unknown to them they had had silent spectators throughout the whole event.

* * *

 

It was horribly silent in the major control room of the Hub. Early in the morning Barton had called all the important players in this case to the major control room as the satellites had showed a culmination of the events. Coming from the Cullen house and from the reservation vampires and wolves were gathering around a huge clearing in two circles. The huge mass originating in Seattle, obviously vampires, was also moving towards this clearing. It seemed like the wolves and the vampires stationed in Forks were preparing to fight together. But according to Bella Swan they were mortal enemies. Why were they fighting together?

The mood in the Hub had been very bad after the meeting where Natasha had presented her findings. Phil was absolutely worried about Bella and had vowed to never let her out of his sight again. Ever! But Fury had ordered them to not tell Bella anything until the right time which left Phil in a nervous constitution. Phil knew that his boss would use this information to secure her loyalty and determination to become one of them. They were currently all standing in the back of the control room. Phil on Bella’s right, Fury on her left side.  She was already in a gray S.H.I.E.L.D. jumper and black sweat pants which were a gift from the agency.  Phil had not been able to convince her to stay in the hospital wing for much longer after her tremors had stopped and she had asked for something really substantial to eat and not “hospital food”.

“I could eat a whole cow!” she had told them with a joyous glint in her eyes. This was more the Bella Phil knew.

But now she was displaying small signs of distress and worry about several beings seen on the screen and it seemed as if she could differentiate the wolves from each other. He knew she was a very empathic person, but she was definitely wincing more for the wolves; especially as two were injured. “No! Leah! Seth!” she whispered worriedly without paying attention to her surroundings. There was also a huge display of some gifts. They were able to spot one blonde vampire who electrocuted the others in order to paralyze and to dispatch them. Another vampire with red eyes had manipulated the nature around him as they were able to detect a small hurricane thrown at one of the attacking vampires. A few vampires loosing focus where also been able to make out.

Each wolf and each vampire moved completely coordinated and it almost seemed as if they were dancing a deadly, but marvellous choreographed dance. The whole surveillance was recorded and Fury planned to use it to study the vampire species thoroughly and to terminate as many vampires as possible in the future.

Bella’s eyes were glued to the screen when she discovered a redhead which was chased by a russet wolf. “Careful Jake!” she murmured. _So the wolves are the natives. Curious._ Fury thought. When she saw him howl because of the red head Phil had to calm her down by putting his left hand on her shoulder. It was pretty obvious that this wolf meant something to her personally.

The big screen was now devided into two parts. One was focusing on the original battle field, while the other focused on the group with the red head. When the russet wolf finally ripped the head of the vampire Victoria Phil heard Bella sigh with relief. Victoria was dead! She could never harm anyone she loved again. It was finally over. She could finally bury her parents properly. She could live again without fear. Really live again. Without the interference or supervision of an overprotective, creepy boyfriend. But on the other hand she did not want to stay in Forks again. Or Phoenix for that matter. Too many bad memories. She wanted more out of life than to marry much too young and staying unhappy until eternity. The smoke on both battlefields made further surveillance nearly impossible. The technicians were trying their best to enhance the visual field, but without much success.

“Carry on with the surveillance!” Fury ordered walking out. “Miss Swan, Agent Coulson, Barton and Romanov. I need a word in my office.”

* * *

 

Carlisle almost finished helping the badly injured wolves, had had unfortunately to break several bones of the two Clearwaters again for them to heal properly. Esme was helping him bandaging them as she had gotten the unused first aid kit from their garage.

 “Hurry up, the Volturi are coming! They cannot see the wolves!” Alice whispered scared which caused the wolves to hoist their three members up and rush away quickly. “Quickly, Faster!” she urged them.  The Cullens had informed the wolves partly about the Volturi and their immense hatred against werewolves; they definitely had no desire to meet them so shortly after this battle. Unfortunately for them their odour was still mingling with the smell of the burning piles.

“Quite impressive! It is not often that we are rendered useless.” Came a seemingly sweet voice through the thick fog, followed by several dark shapes.

“Would you have come half an hour ago, you would have fulfilled your purpose.” Carlisle standing in front of his family and the other vampires answered calmly.

“Hm.” Alec said. “A strong army of newborns dispatched by another army of elder vampires. Fortuna has blessed you. But I think that that was not all? Was it?” _Don’t tell me there were no hairy creatures!_ _I saw them._

“We simply had the advantage of having war veterans and one former trainer a newborn army on our side.” he answered. _Please believe it and leave._

“I doubt that. It smells as if you had some furry aid.” Jane wrinkling her nose asked again. “You know that we do not like anything furry and what happens to those who side with barbaric creatures.

Carlisle gulped. _Have they seen the fight? Are they testing me?_ _Do they know who the wolves are? Is the reservation in danger?_

“Tell me, where is your precious Isabella, Edward?  Aro is looking forward to seeing her again in Voltera.“ Felix asked in a very low but dangerous tone.   _My orders are not to harm them yet. Why? They have clearly broken the Volturi’s trust and sided with dogs! This commission better be good._

“We have her brought to safety from Victoria. But we have not forgotten our promise to turn her.” Edward answered him.

“Don’t forget your commission Carlisle.” Jane reminded him. “We don’t give second chances and we will definitely watch you closely now! You know what happens if you should fail!”

With that they turned and walked away from the remaining vampires, letting them ponder about their subtle threats.

“Carlisle?” Esme asked carefully “What commission?”


	8. Not coming back

Entering the office after witnessing the fierce fight Fury asked Bella about her intentions after the danger of Victoria was no more.

Bella answered truthfully that she wanted to return shortly to Forks and Phoenix to bury her parents properly and to close that chapter of her life completely. Next on the agenda would be the completion of her education. She wanted to graduate. But she did not plan to stay in Forks. Bella really did not want to stay there. She could not live on in the small town where her father had been murdered. Too many memories of him. His car, the station, the house, his goofiness, his friends.

The Cullen's and the Pack would fight to watch over her. Leah would make her life a living hell, Jacob would insist on telling how unhappy he is without her and that she should live with them. But she would have too many memories of happy times with her father. Billy, Charlie's best friend would also be a constant reminder of what had happened. The kids in school would meet her with contempt and whisper and pity her. No! She was not made for a small town. She wanted to live with her uncle or granny.

Fury had just listened to her but started to shake his head which confused Bella to no end.

"You are not out of danger Miss Swan. Far from it. At the moment returning to Forks or Phoenix is out of the question."

"Victoria is dead. What danger is there now? The Cullens? They are vegetarians, they won't hurt me." she answered.

"Well. We have found out that they have something in store for you." Phil cut in. "They are not quite what they seem." He had strange facial expression and his eyes were showing a barely concealed rage. She had never seen him like this. Something was definitely going on.

"What plans?" she wanted to know impatiently. Seeing her uncle almost lose control over his anger was slightly terrifying. If they had held something back they would not know what is coming for them.

"Let me guess. They want you to marry your dear boyfriend as soon as possible and integrate you in their fantastic family clan. They already call you a daughter. Am I right?" Barton asked.

_Why are they teaming up against me? It seems as if they are preparing me for something. What the hell have they found out? And what?_

"Yes." she answered and having enough of their evading her she added:

"Look! I may have been temporarily weakened when you first met me, but whatever it is I want you to throw it at me, because quite frankly I'm absolutely livid about your beating about the bush. What is the terrible thing that the Cullen's are planning with me?"

She knew that that not the best behaviour and she almost expected to be reprimanded by her uncle, but to her astonishment everyone in the room was smiling or grinning proudly at her.

Except Fury who stared at her with an unreadable expression. _Really? Aren't they getting tired of their games?_ Was this some kind of test? Obviously. Had she passed? It looked like it.

"Alright then! Agent Romanov if you please." Fury nodded to Natasha who went straight into presenting mode.

"Do not say we did not try to prepare you properly." her uncle whispered into her ear.

"Well. In short. The Cullens are planning to turn you a human incubator for a human-vampire hybrid." she informed Bella, who shut and opened her eyes rapidly after trying to digest the compressed information.

"I'm sorry. What?" she asked. _Human incubator? How? Why?_

"You are telling me that the Cullen family wants me to carry Edward's spurn? How is that even possible? I mean, Rosalie told me that she always wanted a child but she cannot have one." she rambled.

"Maybe you should start from the beginning, Agent Romanov" Phil suggested looking at Bella who was despite her shock already processing the information she had received.

"Ok. As you were indisposed due to your pheromone poisoning an agent stationed in Seattle retrieved all your files from the hospital including the file on Dr. Cullen's desk. He downloaded everything of his computer and placed a Trojan Virus which will connect their home computer to the internet and give us access to them. "

"Hold on! Downloaded where?" she asked. "You said this agent downloaded everything from Carlisle's computer. Couldn't have been an USB stick. Right?"

"An adapted USB stick yes. Thanks to Stark Technologies. But that is not important right now." Natasha answered unhappy about the interruption, but it seemed that she was so used to the newest technology in the agency that she forgot about the technological level the normal people had to live with. _Poor sods!_

 _"_ For the Trojan to work Carlisle needs to log in from their home." she clarified.

Natasha being annoyed with the constant interruptions ignored her and continued, seeing Coulson nod at the girl.

"Going through those files I discovered scanned texts about legends of a male and a female mating. The male was described as a Cold One and the female as an untouched mate. Well not really Cold one but they referred to it as demónio frio. The word frio can refer either to the state of being physically cold, but also at being callously. So, in a process she received a child which was very special as it had special and strong powers. But the mother's body was never able to cope and died at birth."

_I can't believe it. Carlisle is compassionate! He would never do that. Would he? They were like a family to me. So friendly and warm and they wanted to kill me? Why would they want a human vampire hybrid?_

"Is there any evidence that the whole family was involved? Not just Carlisle?" she asked hopefully.

"As of yet, we have not found any physical evidence about the involvement of the others but we have to strongly assume it. At least Edward had to have knowledge of the plan as it involves him too." Barton told her truthfully after weighing the options of lying to her. Fury wanted her to be part of the agency and lying to her could seriously backfire in the future. So telling the truth was probably the best option.

"May I see the information?" Bella asked. She needed prove. She was in a spying agency and she needed tangible evidence. She had been manipulated long enough!

"You may." Phil answered much calmer, tipped something on a tablet and handed it to her.

"You have to be kidding me!" Bella shouted enraged after seeing the evidence. "It is Portuguese isn't it?" Next to it she found Natasha's translations and switched around the files and processed the texts in almost unnatural speed. Watching her use the tablet and the information all people in the room could see why she would be potential asset to their agency. She seemed to have her technological interests from her mother. Her brain was processing the information in rapid speed and she was perfectly able to handle the tablet.

Phil had to do a double take as she changed the setting on the tablet with almost two or three swishes to show her two columns of two different files at the same time. Was she reading both of them?

"Is this even possible?" _Oh God! I trusted them! Edward had told me jokingly to never trust a vampire. It was a joke to him._

"Dr. Cullen seems to believe so." Natasha answered calmly.

"But as you can see, none of the women in the stories have survived. So it is just a theory. And we do not know anything about what happened to the children. Just that they had the best of both species."

"I need to find out more! If I don't go back they could look for someone else! We cannot let that happen." _What about the treaty? Surely they are breaking it with this._

"You are absolutely not going back anytime soon, Miss Swan." Fury told her. His good eye was staring at her and made her uncomfortable.

"I was not suggesting going back at the moment, but I have to do something to put an end to it." Bella emphasized passionately by hitting the tablet twice with her finger. "Permanently."

"Alright then." Fury pushed himself away from his desk he was leaning on. "Please don't murder our tablet, Miss Swan."

He gave Phil a nod and said. " Agent Coulson. We proceed as planned, but I also think that we could use some of our new gadgets."

 _Which means what exactly?_ To Bella's questioning look Phil informed her grinning. "You and I are going to Nevada with Agent Romanov and Barton."

"Nevada?"

"Yes, you will start your combat training there and prepare yourself for your graduation."

"Well, I hope you are insured." she smiled. "I am not known for my coordination and could seriously hurt you. And what exactly does that entail?"

"Actually I'm starting your training Vampire girl." Natasha cut in. "You need to get in form whether you like it or not. But don't expect me to go easy on you just because you are a girl."

"Could you please not call me that?" Bella called exasperated. "I'm not a vampire and I do not plan on becoming one. ... Ever!"

"Noted." Natasha nodded.

"There are also loads of nerds around who will love to help you preparing for your graduation. I'm sure you'll fit in perfectly." Barton joked. _Did he just insult me? No, it's probably his way of joking._

"Another reason is that you have to say Good bye to your scar on your arm. With all those scientists we can figure out how we can get rid of it without potentially spreading any remaining venom in it."

 _Great. More time in hospital._ "You think that it is a ticking time bomb?" Bella asked. But as she had already worked the tablet she found the answer in no time. She could not wait to get rid of little memento.

"When do we start?"

* * *

 

Billy Black was sitting in his house, contemplating about everything that had happened in the last few days. He was able to walk again, his diabetes had mysteriously vanished with his transformation and he had fought alongside his son and other members of his tribe.

He was feeling physically so much younger again, but he desperately missed his best friend Charlie. Jacob missed Bella just as much, if not even more. Where was she now?

The vampire girl called Alice had not been able to see her again. Who was this Agent Coulson? He was no family member of either Charlie or Renee. He could vaguely remember that there had been a huge fight between the two newlyweds after Bella had been born.

Charlie had wanted him as her godfather but Renee had insisted that she wanted someone else. So Coulson’s claim to be her godfather could be true. He had definitely wanted to be her godfather but to ease their quarrelling he had told them that he would not mind.

The danger of Victoria was over but she did not know that. Jacob had tried to call her several times but had been redirected straight to voicemail. They had to find out soon where she was or Jacob would lose his mind of worry.

He now had to focus to give Charlie the best burial he could have. Bella should be proud of their efforts. If she was not able to be here then she should at least know one day that he had a good funeral. Jacob sitting solemnly on the couch surrounded by Quil, Jared, Sam and Emily was staring at the phone as if he could will it to start ringing, but nothing happened.

The events of today were slowly sinking in and they started to realize how lucky they had been. They were alive. Although they would never trust the Cold ones they had gotten their respect today. But this would not mean that they would become best friends with them. They were still their mortal enemies and danger to humans after all.

All of a sudden everyone flinched at the unexpected noise coming from the phone on the table. "Bella!" Jacob called hurriedly grabbing the phone!

"Bella!Ist that you?Where are you?Victoria is gone!You can come back!The danger is gone!" He practically screamed into the phone.

"Yeah, Hi, Jake, It's me but I didn't get the rest." he heard her laughing heartily. _Why is she laughing?_

Trying to control his heartbeat he needed o first take a deep breath: "Are you alright?"

"Yeah...Sure. I mean, considering what happened in the last few days I'm fine. But I think I should ask you and the pack the same. Right?" he heard her saying. _What is that noise in the background? Is she on a train? There are people talking in the background!_

"How do you know that? Didn't the leeches tell you? We had a big fight with an entire Newborn army of leeches and we won. Victoria is also just a pile of ash. You can come home now! Everything is safe now!"

"Calm down, Jake." she told him. "Was someone hurt?" she told him almost whispering but suddenly changed into an angrier tone: "And for the record: You are the first person I called after ... after Charlie died."

 _She is calling me first! Me! Me! Not the leech!_ Had he not been sandwiched between his pack members who were desperately trying to listen in he would have jumped up and danced around in the room because of happiness but unknown to him at that moment his happiness would soon be crushed by the very same person causing his happiness now.

"Seth and Leah were severely hurt, but they are on the mend now! Dr. Cullen had to break their bones again in order secure them healing in the right place." he informed her. Trying to sound casual he asked: "When are you coming back? Your dad's funeral is in a few days."

She did not answer immediately and had he not heard her breathing he would have thought that she had hung upon him. "I'm not coming back in the foreseeable future, Jake. I'm so sorry but I can't."

"What! But your dad's funeral! You need to come!" His heart was breathing rapidly and he was almost losing control. Why is she not coming back!

"I want to Jake, I really want to but I can't!" he heard her saying pleadingly. "I'll come back one day and say goodbye to him properly but at the moment I can't!"

"Why? Is this Coulson forcing you to stay there?" He would come and get her if he needed to.

"No, Jake. He is not forcing me to stay where I am now. He's actually really great and … ahm… well, I just want you to know that you are my best friend and that you'll always be." she told him.

 _That sounds like a good bye! Is she already with the Cullens? Oh No! Is she about to be turned into one of them?_ "Bells? Are the leeches with you? Is that why you are saying bye?" he growled into the phone.

"Jake, No! Definitely not! No! No! No!" he heard her saying quite forcefully. She sounded repulsed by that idea. "The Cullen's will never, ever see me again if I can help it!"

_Oh! She changed her tune! What's happened?_

"They better stay out of my way or they will regret it!" he heard her hissing in the phone. _What is going on? It sounds like Bella, but her attitude is completely different._

"You don't like your special leeches anymore? What's happened?" he joked.

"Can't say." she answered curtly. "But whatever you do. Don't trust them. I should have listened to you all along."

 _Told you so!_ He heard someone in the background telling her to keep it short now. _No!_

"Ok, Jake sorry. Got to go! We'll stay in touch but it could take a while. Would you mind passing me over to Billy? I just need to give him some quick instructions for Dad's funeral."

"Yeah! Sure. Please take care and call soon…." Before he could say more his dad grabbed the phone and marched outside of the house giving everyone a stare which told them to not follow him. Somehow he had a feeling that this was not about the funeral.

"Hallo, Bella! How are you doing?" he asked and was surprised at her answer.

"I think you were close enough to Jake to hear the answer before. What about you? Feeling better on two feet?" _How does she know that?_

"Yeah!" he brought out in his surprise.

"Listen Billy, Is the Pack listening in because I do not want that right now!" he heard her in an almost commanding tone.

"I figured as much. They are not close right now. I suppose it has to do with your decision of not coming back." he deducted.

"Yes, Ahm Billy? Please do not freak out! I know you are new to the whole wolf thing but I figured that you are the more composed one." _Well I hope so._ _How does she know that?! She talks as if she is here. How does she know what has happened after she has left. Jake has not told her about me_!

"The treaty with the Cullens. As far as I know the treaty becomes invalid as soon as they bite or kill a human creature. Right?" she asked hesitantly. _Where is she going with this?_

"Is it also invalid if they are aiming to get a human creature pregnant?" she wanted to know giving Billy almost a heart attack. "Are you?!" He began to shake violently. _If she is then I will rip them apart slowly and very painfully._

"No! Mercifully I am not and as I haven't lain with any vampire or human, this is not possible." Billy was slowly releasing the breath he had been holding. _Well the leech can live for one more day._

She must have somehow found out about a plan like that. Now her hesitancy to come back made perfect sense. They were planning on breaking the treaty with her!

"Are you safe kid? "He asked and got his answer.

"Yes, for now. But please accept that I can't tell you where I am going as Edward may read your mind and all efforts to stay safe would have been in vain." she reasoned. "By the way. Charlie's best suit is in his room behind his door in a plastic bag."

"Stay safe" he murmured but the girl had already disconnected the call.

* * *

 

"What commission do you have concerning Bella?" Edward raged against his adopted father. "I've heard them thinking about a commission. This commission of the Volturi is the only thing that has kept us alive. They have watched the entire fight! Hell, they even know about the stinking wolves!"

"Calm down, Edward." Carlisle told him pleadingly.

"You know I love Bella like a daughter, but her visit in Voltera has created some severe aftershocks. She is already special as a human. Almost no gift works on her and the Volturi despise our lifestyle."

"What commission, love? You have a look on your face which I haven't seen in a very long time." Esme said slowly walking towards her husband.

The other vampires in the room watched the conversation with interest. Carlisle was known for despising the Volturi and him taking a commission from them was something very unusual.

"Aro is very interested in her." he began hesitantly and while she had been in Voltera a seer had a vision about her as a vampire. According to this seer she could become one of the most powerful ones in our history."

"Then I have to change her as soon as possible!" Edward having a mad gleam in his eyes shouted.

"No! Her strength in the vision came from somewhere else. ….. She would have to give birth to a human-vampire-hybrid in order to receive her powers."

There was a stifling silence in the room. Everyone was shocked until the loudest protest came from the vampire which was least expected.

"Are you out of your mind?! You said: We are vampires, not monsters!" Rosalie shouted at her family. "And I truly believed that you all cared about her!"

"Rosalie…" Emmet tried to calm his wife but was stopped. "No! Do you think I don't know the stories! No woman has ever survived this! None! You are no better than the other vampires if you believe that you are above them! Haven't we destroyed her life enough already?"

"It is either Bella or all the other vegetarian clans including all those who helped defeating the newborns! I have figured out a way to safe Bella with Edward's help but I will not compromise my families or friends lives for one human girl!"

"Not just any human girl! Her name is Bella!" Alice cut in balling her hands into fists. How had she not seen that coming? She didn't want Bella to suffer, but she did not want to die either and a life on the run from the Volturi would not last long.

"Well, I certainly don't want to die. "The former red eyed war veteran said: "We will help you with catching your girl, the rest you have to do for yourself."

"I'm so sorry!" Carlisle said hanging his head in shame. "But it is the only way. She can forgive us later."

"I certainly don't want anything to happen to Bella, especially something like this, but on the bright side. Rose, you could finally have a little baby to take care of."

"Not for a price like this! I'm sorry but I'd rather die than let anything like that happen to Bella." Rosalie spat. "You have to do that without me!"

"Fine! We do it without you! Where do we start?" Edward asked the others. They had to find her first in order to finally fulfil his darkest desires.


	9. Training and a new lead

It was quiet on the small cemetery of Forks which was bursting with a large crowd of people. Not many people had a memorial with that many. It seemed as if the whole town was saying good bye to their former chief of police. Even many residents of the reservation were standing solemnly around the coffin. The Cullen family to the wolves’ misfortune were also present. It took all their willpower to not tear them apart. Jacob was struggling the hardest and tried to concentrate on the elderly, grey haired priest telling them about Charlie's life.  Billy had refused to tell him about what he had talked with Bella, but the packs had understood that the Cullens were the reason that she would not return. 

It simply would be too dangerous. Leah had suggested to kill them once and for all, but had been stopped by the others.

 "There are not just the Cullen's at the moment and they have not broken the treaty yet. We are more, but you saw what they are capable off. We cannot kill them at the moment." her cousin Emily had told her. To Sam’s shock she had also started showing signs of impending transformation. She had become moody, had started eating a lot and had missed her courses. At first she had been ecstatic at the prospect of having a little baby wolf, but after the rising of her body temperature it had become quite clear that she would probably the next new wolf girl.

The heavy black coffin was slowly lowered into the ground to its final resting place and the attendants of the funeral became aware that one Bella Swan had not shown up to her father's funeral.

"The dogs had contact with Bella." Edward hissed under the human hearing to his family. But unfortunately for him the dogs were completely focused on the funeral and avoided thinking about something else. Maybe his family would be able to find out anything about Bella's whereabouts at the wake. They desperately needed a lead to find her again. Alice had tried to focus on Bella but had come up empty again. Esme and Carlisle had visited Phoenix in hope to get a lead on Bella at her mother's funeral but had also returned empty. They had only heard that she had been placed under witness protection, but clearly no one was able to say where.

"Billy, the wake certainly gives Charlie credit. Well done." Carlisle said in hope of starting a conversation but Billy just nodded a thanks.

"Well, the most important person is unfortunately not able to be here." he said sadly. 

"Does she know that the army has been besieged?" Jasper asked and was surprised by the sudden spike of anger in Billy. It was directed against them. He tried to calm himself and his face did not betray his anger.

"You can be certain that she knows, but I do not know her whereabouts." Staring menacicly at Edward he almost growled:"I suggest you stop poking our minds for her whereabouts, we do not know them, who she is with or what she does. She has not told us."

"So she has called you?" Alice asked surprised. "We are her family now so she should have called us!"

"She will not come back to you. It seems as if her godfather was finally able to knock some sense into her. My only regret is that so many people had to die first." Billy started shaking but luckily managed to get it under control again.

"Must be fantastic being able to walk again." Esme tried to ease the ever growing tension by changing the topic. "How did you explain it to the … humans?"

"I simply told them that I had taken part in an anonymous clinical study and that their treatment had surprisingly worked." he remarked never letting them out of his sight. "Now that the army is defeated, when are your friends finally returning to their homes? We never had this many wolves and if the changing rate continues like this then the whole tribe will transform.”

"Some are already scattered around the world again, the others are nomads and do as they please. I cannot do anything."

“They have certainly overstayed their visit!” Billy growled.  But before they could discuss this any further they overheard another conversation.

"I bet it was Bella!" they heard Jessica say smugly. "I mean she was clearly mental!"

"What the hell are you talking about?" Angela defended her absent friend. "She would not have been able to kill anyone. She could not even kill a fly."

"You know the saying: Silent waters run deep! I mean it fits. Maybe she had some psycho episode and killed him in cold blood!"

"You are talking Bullshit, Jess." Mike cut in annoyed.

 "Really. Am I? Then why is she not here. She was really off the reel when Ediboy left her. The episode with the bikers! Hallo! Perhaps because she feels some kind of remorse and does not want to be confronted with her crime at home."

"How could she have been at two places at once? Ever thought about that." Eric spat angrily. "Her parents were murdered at almost the exact time and they were on opposite sides of the continent! I sincerely hope that you do not want to become a lawyer because you suck." he told her.

* * *

 

A few months later, miles away in a much sunnier place a small redhead was slowly getting frustrated. She had begun her mercilessly hard training with Bella a few months ago. The second they had settled in she had taken her for a run around the perimeter. Although Bella had soon been out of breath she had forced herself to continue and had stubbornly refused to ask for anything. Not even water as to not appear weak. Before she had released her she had forced her to practice a routine of movements and warned her that these are the simplest movements that she will ever learn. Bella's coordination had been horrible but she had ordered her to practice whenever she had time. Just before dinner Bella had managed to follow the whole routine smoothly. The second day had started early with weight lifting, sit ups and many other things in the gym, then they were running again and training basic self defence. Now month later her clumsiness had lessened significantly and she had made quite the progress physically and mentally. Natasha had seen to her harsh physical training and Bella had raided the library in order to prepare for her finals not listening to her uncle that she read far too advanced literature. Bella still had not complained to anyone, but today something was different. Her mind was elsewhere and she had beaten the crap out of the boxing dummy she came in contact with. She was definitely angry at something.

"Stop!  Before you hurt yourself!" Natasha ordered an exhausted Bella.  "Where the hell is your mind? Your right hand is held wrongly again. You are physically here, but not mentally! Care to share." she asked in a secretive playful tone.

"I watched the Satellite feeds of my parents separate funerals again." she said. "The first time I knew I could not be there, but I wanted to be there somehow. So I was present in my mind.”

"Please don't tell me that you hacked in our mainframe. Again" Natasha sighed dramatically. Barton had filled her in on Bella’s little tricks. "We were recording the funerals because of the Cullen's not for you to watch them in infinity loop.”  At Bella's raised eyebrows she answered.

 "We figured that they would show up there, because they are looking for you and we want to know how they manage to stay part of our digital world without getting recognized. By the way they are following every lead about you.”

“So I’ve heard. The Cullen’s were at both funerals and I just became so angry! They are the reason they are dead in the first place, they want to drag me into their mental world and they want to force me to stay with them! I feel so helpless because I’m not making any progress in getting stronger.” Bella ranted panting heavily.

“Ok! Listen well, because I won’t repeat it again. Got it!” Natasha told her. “Your anger is understandable. Feed your determination with it. Hell, you have the best coordination in the last few days because of it. But don't let it consume you. For fighting you need a clear head.You might not see it but you are a fast learner and your coordination has become much better. Trust me you will get your chance of revenge eventually.” _She can run for miles without breaking into sweat now. A few months ago that would have been unimaginable_.

“Thanks.” Bella nodded in thought. _But when! They are a security risk and each day they are coming closer._

 _Oh no! You are not going to space out now!_ “One more round and then get a shower! Dr. Helen Cho came to see your current problem.” Natasha informed her.

 _Which problem?_ Falling in step with Natasha around the fence of the facility she wondered. The redhead always started a fast pace and she had serious trouble keeping up. Every few hundred meters were watch towers guarded by military personnel.  How they were able to stay there all day in this godforsaken dry heat without breaking into sweat was a miracle to her. The buildings of the facilities looked only a few floors high but were in reality skyscrapers built into the ground. Her uncle had told her that they were all important scientists doing important things, but when she had asked what these “important” things were he had just told her:

”You’ll find out one day!” She needed water and perhaps she could bring Eric some coffee down to get encouraging words for her finals. She had never thought it possible but running helped her now to think about problems. She vividly remembered how she had met one of the few friendly scientists around this facility.

* * *

 

In the cafeteria the scientists eating breakfast had just given her a short glimpse and had ignored her, well all but one. Apparently it was perfectly normal for new people to arrive.  She had stood in line with Phil to get breakfast and her morning coordination had not been the best as she had stumbled into the elder man. Murmuring an apology she had tried to blend in again. The man before her had short, silvery and white hair, a small round belly and a very friendly face.

“Monday morning, it’s understandable.” he had smiled. “Eric Selvick, Astrophysicist.” She shook his hand, applying pressure to the shaking and smiled:

”Bella Swan. High school student. Well sort of. Astrophysics you say? That’s fascinating? What are you doing here then? I did not see a telescope, although the weather conditions must be perfect for watching the stars.  … Ahm. Sorry I’m babbling!” He had not looked judgingly at her as she had expected but he had chuckled.

“ When are you graduating? If you don’t mind my asking?”

  “No, of course I don’t mind. Well, actually I don’t know but hopefully soon.”

“Well, I sense a big story.” he laughed nervously glancing at Phil behind her. “Especially as Agent Coulson is acting like an ever watchful mother hen.”

“I am not!” a protesting voice came from behind her causing her to giggle as she was imagining her uncle clucking and wearing a chicken costume with his iconic black sunglasses. “As for your information she will sit her exams next week.” _At least she is laughing again._

 _“I am? Why has nobody told me! I need to prepare!”_ Bella cried desperately at her uncle.

 _"_ Bella trust me you are perfectly prepared. _"_ Phil stated calmly. _Perfectionistic like her grandmother. I have to make sure she never crosses path with Rogers._

“How do you like the scientific subjects?” Selvick had started again looking at her with a hopeful look.

“Well,... I’m more the literary science type as I have found it more challenging at high school. The Science Subjects were just too easy.” _Why is he beaming at me? Did he want to hear that?_

“Oh No! Selvick don’t even think about it!” Phil groaned. “She has enough on her plate as it is”

“Bella, how good are you in physics. You know calculations and so on?” 

“She is not going to do your base calculations. Dr. Selvick!” Phil cut in. _Could she do it? Of course not. It’s astrophysics for god’s sake._

“I’m refused another assistant and you know how important the tass… ahm… **it** is.” the elder man defended himself.

“Actually I have done some research in Astrophysics for my presentation on Wormholes but that is about it. And I hardly think this is going to help me here. Maybe if you could tell me which books I need to read in order to catch up then I’m more than willing to help.” Bella beamed at him.  _I’ve been away too long from_ _decent_ _books as it is! My brain cells need new stimuli._

 _“_ Perfect!” he jumped laughingly.

“You know that could take too long for me to catch up on your research.” Bella stated dryly.

“Didn’t you have a heated discussion with our much evaded Dr. Sheldon Cooper a few days ago?” Selvick asked her.

“That’s the name of the annoying brat?” she had shot back. “Marvellous. He has one coming.”

“Oh no! What did you talk about?” Phil had wanted to know. He had heard that Bella and Dr. Cooper had clashed but everyone was bound to at one point. But no one had filled him in what all had been about. _Bella looks dangerous enough to plan a serious prank._

“Well, he was trying to lecture me about Einstein’s General Relativity. And I simply told him that there are some inconsistencies. That was all to set him up."

"Is that taught in High School?"

“Not to that extent, but I was just curious.”

“Perfect.”

"Selvick no!" her godfather shook his head.

* * *

 

“Quick! Come on! Something is going on in Bella’s house!” Alice cried dashing out of the door and into the woods towards the swan residence.

“Bella’s back!” Esme cried hopefully as they had searched the globe for their missing-not yet- family member.  The rest of the family clan followed swiftly behind them but reaching the house they realized that it was not Bella.

A large black truck and several black SUVs were standing in front of the house. People dressed in black working overalls and two small identically looking men in black suits were walking in and out of the house. They could hear moving of furniture, noise of vacuum cleaners indicated that they were cleaning the house. But the crime scene cleaners had already cleaned all evidence a few months back. The house was habitable again. _Does this mean that Bella is coming back and we don’t have to look for her again? Edward? Can you pick up any thoughts?_ Carlisle asked his son.

“It’s strange. I cannot pick up any thoughts at all! How?” he moaned annoyed.

“Maybe they are just focused on their work?” Alice suggested watching the bustling scene. Edward’s gift not working on them is strange and disturbing.

All of a sudden a red VW rabbit was racing towards the residence and only stopped with screeching tires. Out jumped an angry Jacob who addressed one of the suit wearers in a loud voice:

“What the hell are you doing in Bella’s house?” 

But to his misfortune he did not have to wait long for an explanation. “Ah! You must be Mr. Jacob Black. You are just in time.” the man in black not in the slightest impressed with this temperamental young man said which made Jacob stop in his tracks.

“Yes. Why?”  _How do they know who I am?_

“We are cleaning and putting the house in mothballs at Ms. Swan’s request.” he informed the younger man and also involuntarily the vampires hidden in the safe shadow of the forest.

“You have seen her? How is she?” Jacob wanted to know. _No! I need to know._

“No. Mr. Black I have not seen her personally but my ahm company was instructed to do the cleaning.  And…” He fished out a key of his pant pocket and gave it to the astonished young man.

”This is for you from her. I have heard that you repaired this fine piece of truck history. A 1953 Chevy Pickup. Take good care of this baby.”

 _She gives me her truck? Why?_ “But Charlie Swan bought it from my father it’s hers.” Jacob argued. Checking his tablet the small man answered:”No. Here it says: The truck is a gift back from her, because she knows how much… oh my… blood, sweat and tears you have put into rebuilding it and no one else will ever appreciate this car as much as you. Well she has obviously not met me yet .” he smiled at the much taller one. “But if you don’t want it then I could buy it from you?” he asked.

“Don’t even think about it Billy!” his twin called from the doorstep. “We live in a Museum already!”

“I was joking Eric! Ok!?” the former returned annoyed.

Taking the key he needed to know. “I will take it. Do you know how she is doing?” the man called Billy opened his mouth but was interrupted by an old feminine voice with British accent coming from the doorstep.

“She is quite alright now. Don’t despair.” An old woman gray and white hair was struggling to get down the steps. Although she looked something over ninety her eyes were showing a feisty, lucid spirit.  “She has told me so much about you when she was just a little girl. Jacob Black. How she had loved to play on the beach with you.”

After having finally mastered the steps she moved to stand next to him and looked at him appraisingly. “Well I can see what she saw in you: Such strong hands. Almost as good as my old Steve’s but not quite.”

 _Who **is** this woman?_  “What is it? Cat got your tongue boy?”   Coming back to his senses and manners Jacob asked:” I’m sorry. Should I know you?”

 _Well maybe not quite as polite as I wanted_. “No.” she laughed with a raspy voice. “We have never met before! Don’t worry! I’ve been told I’m a hard woman to forget.”

Now it was Jacob’s turn to laugh at the old woman’s antiques but he stopped when two men in black suits came out of the house followed by a middle aged woman with brownish hair. They were carrying heavy boxes and he could smell Bella’s scent on them.

“Why are you taking that? Those are Bella’s belongings.” he asked sharply but the brownish haired woman answered this time. “Yes, they are, but she has requested to bring all the stuff she cares about to a storage facility until she will be able to pick it up after her graduation.”

“So she is really not coming back.” he stated defeated already knowing the answer.

“No. At least not in the next few years, so you better be moving on.” she told him kindly. “Bella doesn’t want you pining after her. She wants you to live a good life.”

“And how do you know that?” he asked. How can I after everything we’ve been through?

“Trust me.” the old lady told him evenly. “We know her better than anyone in this town. “

“How?” _What the hell! I know her best. I’m her best friend._

“We are kind of family and that is all you need to know young man.” the old lady patted him on his arm.

“Ah! Splendid. We better be going. Enjoy your new car Jacob.”

After heaving loaded the heavy boxes into one of the black vans the two agents opened the doors, helped the two women inside and drove off leaving a flabbergasted Jacob standing in front of the house.  

The Cullens were watching and listening intently on everything happening. There was a familiarity between the old lady and the brownish haired woman. They had similar bone structure in the face so they had to be related, but they reminded Carlisle of someone else. But he could not pinpoint the person in his mind.

“I can hear their thoughts!” Edward exclaimed excitedly. “They are thinking about how to perfectly clean the house. Which substances to use, which cleaners. Boring.  This one is thinking about his collection of … dr. who cards.“ Then one of the twins came back out reading silently from his tablet: “Last box has to be handed personally to Bella Swan on June 18th. Location: Phoenix Central High.  Security detail: Red. Never to be left out of sight. Interesting girl.”

“So the women just left and now you can read the minds again?” Esme asked for confirmation. “That’s strange.” _Maybe their remark about being family is truer than they wanted to admit._

“I’ve found her! I now where she will be! We can finally continue!” Edward told them with darkening eyes.


	10. Graduation day

Bella was currently fidgeting in her seat. She had spent the last week sitting her exams. Curiously she had to sit all subjects available in the US, not just the ones she had taken in high school. When she found out, she swore to find and make the agent, who had done this to her, suffer.  At first she had completely panicked until Barton, one of the agents assigned to her, had given her a white pill. When she had demanded to know what he had just given her his response was:

”An anti-hypertensive with an effect lasting four hours. Helped me against my exam nerves.”

She had not been able to stop herself from grinning. “You?! You had exam nerves?”  _The badass archer?_

“We all start young. Little Padawan!” he had joked and Bella was  thankful for him trying to ease her tension. Fury had unfortunately called her uncle off her case making him quite angry. Her uncle was good at appearing calm and collected but she knew him best and could tell that he did not like it one bit. A thing that had completely surprised her was that Barton was often reciting Star Wars Lines and her nickname from him had become padawan.

Smiling at the man opposite she thought: _Come on. Tell me if I have passed the exams! You idiot! Honestly I so am going to hunt the agent who did this to me! It better be not my uncle!_

The white bearded man sitting in front of her looked up from all her exam results and let out a heartfelt sigh.

_That’s it I failed! My future is over. I should have done more reading and not helped Selvik! Hopefully they let me somehow work in the agency otherwise I’m doomed._

“Well, Miss Swan.” he began looking sadly at her. “How well do you think you did?”

_What kind of question is that! Tell me already! … Oh you really expect an answer?_

“Well, Mr. Charleston. I don’t think that I was that bad in the science subjects but the literary subjects were more challenging and I certainly didn’t have enough time for the written exams. I could have written so much more. I also think that the exam question for English literary concerning Hamlet’s insanity has been phrased wrong.” _Maybe he lets me pass. Natasha has told me to keep talking. Why on earth is he starting to laugh? Or is it a giggle?_

“Miss Swan. When your aunt, a former graduate,  approached me to ask about you writing your exams in our old prestigious school I had my reservations, but as I have been present in all of them I can only say my deepest regret is that I did not have you in my school for all these years. You would have raised the level substantially.”

“So I didn’t fail?” Bella murmured only to cause another giggle fit from the man sitting opposite to her.  _Wait a minute? Aunt?! I don’t have an aunt. Is he talking about Elizabeth or does Phil have a wife I don’t know about? Men shouldn’t giggle. That’s just plain wrong._

“It seems to me that your unstoppable thirst of knowledge is a family trait. Your aunt and your father have both been students in this very facility. Nothing could stop them from entering the library and the discussions have always been very heated as you can imagine.” What had S.H.I.E.L.D. told this headmaster? Charlie never really had left Forks except for one or two holiday trips forced by Rene.  “Well. Almost. Your father loved fantasising about a red flying car.” _Hold on! He is talking about Phil!_

“Very vivid imagination, I must say. The board of directors has especially enjoyed your history essay about feminism. Very sharp and fierce.”

_Ha! Somehow I needed to let my anger out for what Edward has done to me!_

_“_ Should you ever need a letter of recommendation, then I’d be more than happy to…” The rest of what he told her was lost as Barton crashed through the door shouting:” We need to move! Now!”  _The Cullen’s? How did they find us?_

 _Nodding at the headmaster he said._  “You know what to do? ”

“Of course! Good Luck!”

Grabbing the girls arm Barton ran towards the stairs in the corridor and led her up to the roof. She knew that they had placed a small helicopter on the roof to fly her out of danger. All of a sudden she could hear the rattling sound of machineguns. No! They were coming! Her heart was racing and she was putting her training to the test. The old Bella would never have been able to run two floors in her current speed without breaking down but it seemed that Natasha’s training had paid off as she was speeding up the floors. She would not go back to them! She only hoped that the agents weren’t killed but unfortunately she also knew that the guns were completely useless. Pushing the door open she saw the helicopter already hovering a few centimetres above the ground! Barton led her directly onto the helicopter who took off the minute a white flash appeared behind them.

“Bella! Don’t go!” she heard the melodic voice of her old friend Alice who was standing at the edge of the roof ready to jump.   The pilot tried to put as much space as he could between the school and the air but what they had not foreseen was the determination of the Cullen family.

All of a sudden the helicopter lurched and Bella had to fight to stay in the seat!

“One of the beasts jumped onto the helicopter!” the nameless pilot cried in the com. _Oh No! Please do not let it be Emmet!_

Barton reacted by throwing Bella a gun calling: “Shout at anything that moves!” 

“I don’t know how to use a gun!” she called back almost hysterically.

_I’ll be damned! All that training and she had not yet a proper shooting lesson!_

“Click the safety of, point and pull the trigger!” he shouted back. Bella could hear the vampire crawling closer from the tail of the helicopter to their cockpit even though the pilot tried to shake him off.

All of a sudden a white hand appeared at the door. She knew that delicate manly hand! This was not Emmet! It was Edward! She fuddled with the safety until she could hear the click and waited for the opportune moment! She had to be careful while shooting. His skin was hard like marble and the bullets could bounce off. They could either be reflected or change direction while hitting her target.

Edward ripped the helicopter door off and tried to enter but was surprised by the Bella before him! She wasn’t as pale as he had met her at Forks. Well, still pale in comparison to the other people but still.  She looked sun kissed and had a determined look on her face. The other two men in the helicopter were of no importance! He was here for Bella.

As he tried to grab her hand he could feel something hitting his shoulder! It didn’t hurt him but it had enough pressure to be irritating. Bella was shooting at him!

“Hey, Leech!” he heard the man whose voice he recognized as Barton. “Say Good bye!”  _What? Why should I say that?_

Just when he thought that he felt something big and fast hit his stomach with great velocity. It quickly shoved him away from the helicopter as he lost his grip and he picked up speed towards the ground!

“Barton my hero!” Bella cheered and asked “Did we actually have a loaded bazooka under our seats?!”

The agents just smiled triumphantly and answered non gallantly.

“We actually did have a loaded bazooka under our seats. One thing you need to learn in this agency young one is: Be prepared for anything!”

“Well, I wasn’t prepared for shooting a gun!” she admitted but she at the same time she felt so alive with all the adrenalin pumping through her veins.  “You know, I feel I could tackle anything!”

“Definitely kid!” Barton assured her! But now you need to start your firearm training properly. I assumed that you have already started as you were assigned to Agent Harkness for that. As soon as we land I will start with you “

“Don’t you have the tesseract to watch over?” Bella asked carefully but was abruptly silenced by Barton. “Sh! Not one more word about it outside of our compound! Got it?!”

“Yeah! Ok! Sure!”

“Good! I’m sure I can find the time unless you rather want to learn from a grumpy Natasha who just had to sit your exams in Phoenix?” he joked.

“She did what?” _Which exams are counting? Mine hopefully._   “We have placed several agents in different schools to appear as you to confuse the leeches. I would have volunteered but even with a wig on everyone would have seen that I’m not female.

“Bella laughed freely like she had not in a very long time. _Seems like her pressure of finishing school is finally over for her!_

“What is that?! Coming towards us!” Bella realized that something small leaving a golden red streak was speeding towards them in the air.

“Sir, we have incoming!” the pilot said “And you are not going to like it.”

 

 

 


	11. Multiple happenings

Barton groaned. This encounter would only bring him huge paperwork to fill out and an intern investigation of how this man had found them so easily.

“Three guesses young one! What appears small, has an ego bigger than the whole galaxy and leaves back a red and golden streak while flying?”

Could it really be him! She had lived in Forks and never really been interested in celebrities but she had watched his inventions with interest. Once or twice she had also commented on his company’s blog and made suggestions. Once he even had personally responded to her review!  She knew that Elizabeth her uncle’s estranged sister had chosen a different career path and had gone into science and was one of the leading scientists in his huge company. Unfortunately she had not much contact with her but she remembered her as a very nice and extremely bright woman.

One time she had visited New York. Nana Coulson had not been able to take her with her to an appointment and Elizabeth had jumped in and had taken her shopping for books in the Rizzoli Book Store. The whole store had been huge and intimidating with a high artistic ceilings and dark brown mahogany shelves. She had found so much she was interested in and Elizabeth who had several times insisted to call her aunt was seemingly happy to for seeing the bookish joy in her. They had left the store with several heavy shopping bags full of books which had caused Renee to do a double take. “New York. The city full of clothes stores and you come home with books!”

 “What is wrong with my clothes?” she had asked obliviously and Renee had joked:”Well with the right clothes you could attract some nerd who could invent the next lifesaving stuff for this world.”

Elizabeth had only sourly replied:”Where is your female pride? With these books she won’t need a nerd to attract, but she will be the one making the life saving invention.”  

“Iron Man? Is this Tony Stark aka Iron Man speeding towards us?” Bella asked giddy with a huge toothy grin on her face! _Why are these two not happy?_

“Yes, the one and only.” Barton answered with clenched teeth. “The agency does not like him so much as he has the tendency to hack us. This results in a vicious circle of changing of protocol and so on and so forth.”

“Ah Legolas! Admit it. You are secretly pleased to see me!” came the smooth voice of none other than Tony Stark over their com.

“Sir, he has overwritten our com signals.” the pilot redundantly informed them.

 _What? While flying?_ Bella wondered.

“What do you want tin can?” Barton asked annoyed in his com.

“You are flying right in a trap. The coordinates you received for changing vehicles is surrounded by pale people without any body temperature and who seem to be waiting for something or should I say someone?” the smug voice in their com said. All of a sudden the red streak appeared right beside them, beside the ripped off door and a red and golden figure landed in their helicopter in lightening speed startling everyone in the confined space.

“Hey, there! For some reason they know where you planned the change so…”

“You think there is a leak?” Bella interrupted his speaking flow.

 “Yes, la abbastanza Bella! That is exactly what I am saying!”  The metal man answered with a mock bow.

“According to your cute little database they have powers and your itty little agents are not immune to them as this little one here is.”

“I’m not little!” Bella exclaimed! “So what’s the plan?” she wanted to know as Barton was already trying to reach his superior.

“This is the plan!” the man in the red suit stated,  put two silver metal rings on her wrists, opened her seat belt and jumped out of the helicopter with a shocked Bella in tow, completely disregarding a heavily shouting Barton.

“Are you barking mad!” she exclaimed terrified! “I’m going to die!”

“No! You are not! My emergency suit is programmed to follow me and copy exactly what I do. So I will take you to safety first and then we need to have a little chat about your constant hacking into my system!”

“Uops!” was the only thing Iron man could hear from the girl hanging in the air underneath him. _I am so busted!_

 _“_ Ok! Watch out here it comes!  Stretch your arms and let the suit do the work!” he ordered her and was pleasantly surprised as she did exactly that and marvelled at his invention.  “You should be honoured! Not many are allowed to use my personal suits.”

“Where are we going?” she asked him as she followed him with her own grey suit. “Not telling, little one!” _I swear if he calls me little one again,…!_

“Well, How did you do in your finals?” the chuckling man said. _What?! He was that?!_

“Why don’t you tell me?” came the annoyed retort. “You better be not responsible for all the additional subjects!”

“Ha! Of course I was! It was payback for your unexpected hacking! You gave my quite a heart attack! Do you have any idea how long it took me to recalibrate Jarvis!” he shouted in their shared com. “27 hours 3 minutes and 32 seconds of hell!”

 But the only response was a heavily snickering Bella who could not help but feeling proud at her accomplishment for stalling the probably most intelligent man on the planet.

“Your own mistake!” she answered grinning. “You told the media that the person able to hack you’re AI gets an internship in your company and I was in panic mode because I haven’t spent enough time on my studies for my finals.”

“So you hacked my poor Jarvis instead! How could you do this? Attacking a poor defenceless AI! I cannot go down my lab again without being afraid of the horrifific songs you let him sing every time I opened a file. Jarvis has no singing voice!” _More snickering! I don’t believe it!_

“In infinity loop!” he exclaimed shuddering at the memory!

  “When I dance they call me Macarena and the boys say that I am Buena,…” he heard the girl sing teasingly and he groaned. “Stop! That song on infinity loop is torture! Then I have finally managed to stop that infernal song and you had a backup installed. I can never see a normal bird again! The birdie song! Where did you get that idea from? Dr. Who? Everywhere I went! In my shower! Opening my fridge and even on my cell phone!”

“You connected your every life item to your AI. Not my mistake, but I would have loved to see your face personally!” he heard her snickering. “I hope Jarvis recorded it!” _Oh No!_ _Well, the internship is hers but only AFTER I find out how she did it and how I can stop her snickering. She is worse than Eli!_

“How fast are we going?” Bella enquired curiously.

“Faster than light speed of course! Kid!” she heard the entrepreneur say in a very serious tone.

“Right Solo. I don’t see us going back in time. How fast are we really going!

“Alright! Know it all! A little bit faster than the fastest jet. Get ready.” he remarked.

“That still doesn’t answer my question! Wait. Ready for what?” she shot back but could not say anything else as she shot head down to the ground, mimicking what the red suit in front of her was doing and thanks to her guide she landed safely on a platform which started removing her suit.

“Ok. That is not Stark Tower.” she remarked curiously looking around. It was a manor with a high ceiling, about 3m she guessed; perfectly white walls and light brown parquet flooring.  Bella, almost slipping on the floor, thought that she could detect traces of European Renaissance influence.

“Correct! It’s not but it belongs to me now through three different dummy corporations so it cannot be traced back to me. Was one of my dad’s countless private dollhouses.” the cocky man next to her stated. “Six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, rooftop terrace and a library with a sufficient amount of first editions.” 

“Dollhouse?” Bella wanted to confirm if it really meant what she believed that it meant. “He called it entertaining, but his records confirm that Peggy Carter also stayed here with her friend Montinelli for some time after she has cleared his name. But she was one of the very few who resisted his charm!”

“Montinelly?” She knew only about one person with that name. As far as she knew she had been Nana’s best friend and tie to the normal world. “Nana probably kicked his ass a few times” Bella murmured under her breath, hearing the famous man next to her chuckle.

All of a sudden he opened two double doors with glass and a glass bow above it and stepped in a huge room. It was of oval shape, had lamps in forms of candles and paintings on the wall, three huge windows with big violet curtains, several sitting arrangements made of black mahogany and brown mahogany.  But the most impressive thing was the light which came from one big oval lamp on the ceiling which was stretching around the whole room. 

“Close your mouth kid or you’ll catch a flying bug.” Tony joked indicating her to take a seat across from him on one of the big cosy armchairs close to the window.

“So know that we are here in my quaint home you will talk me through how exactly you broke down my firewall and reprogrammed Jarvis. I assume it will take some time until they find out that I have played your little friends at S.H.I.E.L.D. and some more time to find out where I have taken you.”

“I think they will surprise you. Mr. Stark.” Bella grinned confidently staring directly into Tony Starks eyes. She wanted to try one mind trick Natasha had told her. Maybe she could unsettle Stark a bit more. This practice could be fun and she wanted to avoid the subject of her hacking a bit longer.

“Do you really think that they have no way of tracking me? They are spies and have to know exactly where their persons of interest are at any given moment. I know for certain that they are already on their way here.”  To emphasize her point Bella leaned back relaxed in her chair. The man opposite to her seemed unfazed by her and just shrugged his shoulders pulling out a device which had the size of a smart phone but was completely made of glass. At least it looked like glass. Looking at her he said.

“Nice bluff there. Nearly believed you pulling a Romanov. A little word of advice: Never play poker, your heart jumps when you are being dishonest. Plus, there are no tracking devices on your person. So talk!” _Ah! Damn! Worth a try._

“Well, you know the saying. A magician never reveals his secrets.” she began but at receiving his murderous look she knew that she should not play this game further because this man sitting opposite her was probably a dangerous opponent.  Tony on the other hand loved how nervous the girl sitting opposite to him suddenly became at his “murderous” expression. She was really too easy. He had to restrain himself to not start laughing. He was not really angry at her but she had started this game of deception and he simply had more experience in it. It was also clear to him that Romanov had something to do in her training to be an agent, but Bella seemed more like a mischievous scientist than a badass agent and he had not forgotten her comment on one of his inventions.

* * *

 

“Ok. I hope you have something to write because it’s complicated what I did. Ok. Here we go.”

“What do you mean she shot you?” Esme asked her son who was angrily rearranging the furniture in their house.

“This Agent Barton has tossed her a gun and she shot at me. The bullets were a nuisance, but didn’t hurt. But this was not the worst.” he screamed.

“Yeah! You got shot by a bazooka. That’s worse!” Emmet snickered at Esmes’ horrified facial expression.

“No! She hates me! She was angry at me! They have done something to her. I know it.” Edward raged.

“Unfortunately, I have to agree.” Alice cut in. “She was fit and strong. And I mean really fit. She ran up those stairs without needing to catch her breath.”

“They certainly were well prepared. There were several different people on different schools posing as Bella. The bodyguards were not typical military personal. They were highly specialized.”

“I couldn’t get a read of their minds, because they were constantly reciting the alphabet or citing a song. What if Bella told them about our powers.” Edward told them.

“Well you and your family failed spectacularly to obtain the girl. Carlisle.” a sickly sweet voice interrupted them. “The Volturi will take it upon them to catch the nuisance. In the mean time you are hereby ordered to come and stay in Voltera.”

“You mean we will be prisoners!” Carlisle almost spat. “You will be our … guests. Tell me Carlisle:” Jane asked stepping towards the pale leader of the Cullens.”How did you know which school to pick?”

Carlisle gulped and answered. “The old female we have seen at Bella’s house was familiar to me, but I didn’t know why at that time. At home I did some research and found out why she was so familiar. When I stayed in New York after WWII, I came across a female agent of the SSR who was investigating a suspicious murder. A murder committed by a vampire. She was the most curious and unusual female person I have ever encountered. She did not believe me what I have told her and did not let go of the case until she was thankfully assigned a bigger case. Now that I think back on it I believe she was very far ahead of her time.”

“Get to the point!” Jane snarled impatiently.

“I am trying to, Jane.” he hastily defended himself. “She had the same ability at the Swan house than Bella and I deduced that she could in fact be related to Bella somehow. So I called my personal detective and he found out that her two children went to the school we went to retrieve Bella. Although Edward had heard that agent think that they would meet her in Phoenix I assumed that this could have been a misinformation”

“Mh? How is she related to your pet?” Jane wanted to know rubbing her chin pensively.

“We do not know! Charlie and Rene are neither of her children. So she could be adopted, which is quite unlikely as they must have been very young when they would have adopted her. Or they are loosely related. Agent Carter had a brother in England who died in the war. Perhaps he had illegitimate children.”

“Good! We will use this to our advantage.” Jane smiled evilly.

“How?”

“Get some brains Cullens!” Jane snapped. “We will use the old hag to draw the girl out.”

* * *

 

“Stark has obviously lied to you. Barton. The satellite feed does not show any signs of vampire activity and never did.” an angry looking Fury informed his annoyed agent.

“But why has he taken her then. Could a Vampire use him to get to the kid?” he reflected. But the Iron man had seemed like himself.

“It is possible, but I think it could be about our young swan’s hobby.” his boss told him.

“What? Like dating crazy vamps?” _wouldn’t be surprised if Stark was one. He does seem to be stuck in his junkyard of a laboratory all the time and only comes out at night for dating women._

“No. Hacking. Our protocols of the Nevada facility showed intense hacking of his company, right after Starks big speech that absolutely nothing can penetrate his company’s firewalls and that anyone who manages it will get an internship.”

Barton crackled with laughter. This is practically an invite Bella would not have been able to resist.

“Did she manage it?” he wanted to know only to get a grinning nod from his superior. She had clearly impressed the director again and it practically never happened that Fury showed any signs of approval.

Barton, still cracking with laughter said: “We have to get her back from Stark before Coulson finds out that he has nicked her, otherwise …”

“Otherwise what?” the calm voice of none other than Agent Phil Coulson swept over to them from the entrance.

* * *

 

“Good evening, Heimdall” the beautiful queen of Asgard greeted her gatekeeper.

“Good evening, your majesty” the tall strong guard with the ever watchful eye and golden armour basked in the dying sun answered. “I have still not been able to make out your son Loki.”

“I do not believe that he is dead. He is lost.” she told her guard. Every day since Loki had let go of her husband’s staff she had come here in hope that Heimdall would have glimpsed him. Thor and the All-father had insisted that Loki was dead, but even though she was not his birth mother she had always had a strong connection to her adoptive son. He was natural at magic and being physically weaker than Thor she had found out at an early age that he was very intelligent and patient at learning magic. Being taunted by other Asgardians about his distaste of taking pleasure in fighting she had seen no other choice as to take him under her wing. He had always been different but she loved him just as much as Thor.  She had often consulates him when the All-father had preferred his son Thor to Loki by saying:

”Love is the only thing that never gets less by dividing it among more people.”  She even remembered the heated discussions during the rare family dinners. Thor had constantly reminded his younger brother that he was fighting without honour, while Loki had argued his point that honour was a poor excuse for death in battle. He would rather fight covertly to stay alive then fight bravely, which he often called foolishly, and die in battle.

“Something is not right in Midgard, my Lady.” he informed his queen.

“What do you mean?” she enquired. Thor loved Midgard and especially the mortal called Jane but they had always believed that the Midgardians where still very primitive. What had surprised her after Thor’s return was that the All-father had repeatedly sent one of his loyal ravens to a small place called Forks to investigate something, at the suggestion of their gatekeeper.

“White deadly creatures are hunting for a mortal girl because they have something terrible planned for her. She has nearly escaped them once again, but the Man in Iron is interrogating her now. I do not know how often she will be able to evade them again as their three leaders are assembling their best and deadliest trackers at the moment.“ he answered gravely.  

“Do you know why they are after her? I mean why her specifically and why is the man in iron interrogating her?” the queen’s interest was piqued. _Who is the girl? Man in iron?_

“It seems that she is immune to almost all of their powers and the man in iron is questioning her about a harmless prank she has played on him.” the gatekeeper told her with a grinning face. It seemed that Heimdall had quite enjoyed what he had seen.

“They have powers? Magic powers? In Midgard?” Sensing within her magic that the Norns had somehow intertwined the mortal girl’s destiny with Asgard she needed to know more.  “Tell me Heimdall, what they are planning with the girl!”

 

 

 


	12. Training

The Asgardian queen was looking horrified at the gatekeeper in his golden shining armour. What he had shared with her was completely against every fibre of her being. No wonder the All-father blamed himself for completely disregarding Midgard in favour of other realms. Was this the reason why he pushed the architects to rebuild the rainbow bridge as soon as possible? He had argued that Asgard is isolated through the destruction of the Rainbow Bridge and that other forces would use their absence to bring chaos to the universe once again. Had he talked to the Norns? Where did the Vampires come from? It was highly unlikely but not impossible that they were from Midgard. What they had planned with the mortal girl was unforgiveable and she would not stand for it. She needed to find a way to help. Maybe she could investigate in her son's study. While Thor had evaded his study like a pest and only used it to collect trophies of his fights Loki's study was looking like a scholar’s paradise. Uncountable books, parchment and many other things that he found interesting to study were lying and standing organized on shelves and tables. Perhaps he had documented the hidden portals somewhere. The All-father had tried giving the order to bring Loki's left things somewhere but after another severe fight with her he had relented and ordered to leave everything the way it was. She knew it was his way of coping with his loss. Bringing a mortal to Asgard was also against the law as they were still considered less cultivated. But according to Heimdall they were posing a considerable threat not only to the girl, but also to other mortals. They loved inflicting pain on mortals which they just considered as their squealing meals. It seemed that Asgard had to intervene as the mortals were unable to deal with this horrific threat on their own. But could they also pose a threat to Asgardians? Would their poison also turn Asgardians. They were much stronger than Midgardians, but turned Asgardians where a frightening possibility indeed. She needed to frequent the Asgardian library once again. Maybe their oldest scholars had come across something similar.

Heimdall continued gazing into the realms but he could almost hear the queen thinking. She had been absolutely appalled at the happenings on the Midgardian realm and although he was glad that he had been able to divert her attention from the loss of her son, he became slightly uneasy if he should have told her everything as she was known for her strong empathic powers. But she was his queen and lying to her would be considered treason.  Looking deeper into the Abyss he suddenly had the feeling that he could see a shape looking similar to Loki standing on an asteroid in front of another large asteroid shaped in form of a throne. The shape was looking tense and shook as if he was in intense pain. As he tried to focus more on the shape to find out if he was seeing correctly the entire scene disappeared as if someone was pulling a curtain above it. Someone else was powerful enough to hide from his watchful gaze?! Or did he just want to find the Traitor so badly for his queen that he was imagining things? As he could not be certain about it he did not want to burden the queen with more sorrow.

* * *

 

He could not take any more pain. After falling so far into the Abyss he did not know where he had been. The titan Thanos had found him and brought him here. He had shown him that he had been played from the very beginning. His "father" had never loved him as he was the very manifestation of his enemies. He was a frost giant. Except he was nothing like the savage monsters he had encountered on Jodenheim. He was intelligent, could fight fiercely if necessary, and had been considered handsome on Asgard in his “asgardian” form. It must have been his mother’s magic. But although he had seen his real face after he found out about his true heritage he had difficulties finding his original form. It seemed that his mother had woven a very powerful spell which had somehow partially changed his physique. What's more he hated the cold. He always had. Thanos had shown him that he was hated by "his" people, his false family. His “father” had thrown him in the Abyss. He only had believed, that he had let go of the staff.His “father” had thrown him in the Abyss and his family was celebrating his "demise" with a huge banquet. Thanos had shown him and had agreed to help him with his revenge, but he had to learn new things first. And if he did not learn fast enough he was punished. This creature was very strong and powerful. Maybe even more powerful than the All-father himself. With the sceptre, he had received he will take Midgard and take what is his and ultimately so he will take what is under his brothers protection. With the sceptre, which had a connection to one infinity stone he had been able to establish a mental connection with Eric Selvick, one of Thor's morsels of a friend. He was his way of getting to Midgard. When he would have taken Midgard he would show the All-father that he was a far better ruler then Thor. He would prove him wrong. The people on Midgard where slaughtering each other. With him as their king this would stop. He would not allow them to believe in some puny deities. Thanos had watched Midgard very closely because he wanted the blue infinity stone they called the Thesseract. What had surprised him was the vast difference in development. Some parts of Midgard where further developed than others. It seemed that there were centuries of mental development between them. He remembered that he had visited Midgard centuries ago, but the part which was currently centuries behind the actual more modern part had been the more advanced one back then. Something terrible must have happened. And most of the evidence pointed to religious fanatism, exploitation and ignorance. But he decided he had to find out more when he had taken Midgard. He just hoped that Thanos would allow him to sleep soon. He had not slept for a very long time. In the back of his mind he had the nagging feeling that Thanos was not telling him everything about his plans and wanted him to be that tired. He had read once that sleep deprivation was making people more susceptible to suggestions. Thanos would not succeed in brainwashing him to do his bidding. He was a prince of Asgard. He was strong! He should have been king and not Thor!  He would show his "father" that he was the better choice. All he had to do was bring Thanos the infinity stone. Hopefully he was allowed to sleep soon. He was getting visions again. He could see three pale, royal looking people talking to their equally pale subjects, who looked like a wild group of savages. The most disturbing thing was their red eyes. The feeling of dread was becoming almost unbearable and quite tangible. It became even worse when the scene changed to a densely grown forest where he could spot a young woman running desperately from something. No! She was hunted by the red head savages! All of a sudden he saw her drip over a hidden root and all of them were over her.

“Keep her alive! We need her!” their red eyed slimy leader shouted! As another wave of pain brought him back to reality he hoped, that these visions did not become true. He had no idea why he kept having visions of this female even back on Asgard, but he detested these horrid creatures.

“You fell asleep again, young princeling!” the colossal violet creature informed him. “Your training is almost complete and the Chi’tauri are almost ready to serve you.”  

She was a dream not a vision. His mind must have wandering again. He could not wait to finally cross the barrier of the thesseract and begin his reign.

* * *

 

“I’m sorry Phil, but Tony hasn’t returned to Stark Tower yet.” the fiery redhead informed her favourite agent.  _What have you done now! Tony!_   Clashing with this agency was not a good idea.

She heard him sigh: “Does Mr. Stark have any other houses in New York where he could have taken her? Our satellites showed him arrive in New York, but then the trail becomes cold.”

She remembered that he had mentioned an old Dollhouse of his father that he wanted to check out, but she had forbidden it to him, because she did not like the idea of Tony Stark in brothels.  He had just laughed at her and answered her that it was just an estate that he owned and that it was not a real dollhouse, but his father had used it as such. But the address was beyond her.

“I’m sorry Phil, but I only know that his father used to have a few houses in New York, but that is all. I think one of your former agents and the famous actress Montinelly have lived in one for some time.” _Hope that helps._

 _Seems I have to ask mum about the address._ Phil thought. 

The look on the man sitting opposite was positively shocked. He was sitting straight and clutching the pencil with his eyes wide open. She had to admit, she had expected any reaction, but not a completely silent Tony Stark. As far as she knew he was a person incapable of shutting his mouth for a second, but she had been able to achieve this. Not able to resist she leaned forward and waved her right hand in front of his eyes and it seemed to have the desired effect as he came back from his line of thought and ranted:

“Hell! No! I had no idea that this entry way was even possible. It’s decided I am not letting you out of sight again, young lady. The risk that you could work for any of my competitors or enemies is simply too high.”

Bella felt extremely proud again, but she also knew that she was probably sitting opposite to the only person who was able to help her with building weapons against her leech problem and the moment should not be left unused.

“Speaking of enemies” she started carefully “I have told you how to make the proper adjustments for the protection of your AI, but do you think you could help me with my vampire problem? S.H.I.E.L.D. has no idea how they could decimate their population without endangering civilians.”

“Are we playing ‘Manus manum lavat’(=one hand washes the other) now?” he enquired grinning rubbing his hands in anticipation. “I have several ideas, based on the files you have written and I have contacted Dr. Cho.”

 _Why has he done that?_ Seeing her questioning gaze he went on.”I need a sample of the poison to analyse so that I can cook up an antidote for all eventualities. Of course it is too dangerous to catch one marble homunculus and that’s why I need your tissue. The clowns in S.H.I.E.L.D. would squander the sample without any result. I’m your best chance.”

“You should have gone into advertising Stark, but I believe that you are our best chance.” Bella began dryly. “But I also want it to be noted that S.H.I.E.L.D. has brilliant scientists too.”

Tony could not stop his explosive laughter. “Yes, but I wouldn’t trust them as far as I can throw them. They are all just following orders and not allowed to think outside of the box. S.H.I.E.L.D. has always ulterior motives, kid.”

Bella scoffed at that: “And you don’t? With every invention your stock price rises. This means you win double time. So please don’t tell me anything about ulterior motives. And for the record: Without S.H.I.E.L.D. I would be dead or worse!” she emphasized her rising anger with pointing her index finger at him.

“She is correct. Mr. Stark.” came the calm voice from the door and Bella could see her Uncle Phil coming into the room. Much to Tony Stark’s dismay. _This is getting ridiculous. Why are they always walking in residences like they own them? How do they know we are here?_

“Security breach!” he exclaimed dramatically but just received a light friendly grin from the agent.

“Mr. Stark, we are thankful for your dramatic rescue even though there was no need for it.  We had the situation under control.” _I doubt that._

“We know you are currently working on a prototype for sustainable energy, but we would be very delighted if you could spare some time and aid us in developing weapons against the vampires. The targets in Voltera are easy to find, but the single covens are more difficult to detect.”  _Is that really Agent Coulson? Why does he sound British?_

Bella raised left her eyebrow, because she believed to know exactly how Phil had found them. He must have talked with his mother! He always had a British accent after talking with her. Nana had told her once that even as a child he had always switched between these two accents dependent on whom he had talked to in the family and even she had picked it up for some time after staying with her for two weeks. A fact which had her late mother tease her immensely.

“Of course there was need. I needed to know how she had broken through my defences!” Stark defended himself. “And because I am so generous today, I will cook something up, if I get her sample.” 

Phil stroking his chin seemed to be deep in thought. He knew that his agency had fantastically brilliant scientists, but unfortunately none could be compared to the man before him. But the sample was the only thing his agency could have to find something to defend them. Could the split it in half? Maybe. Or perhaps one of their scientists could work with Stark. The only problem was that Stark was unable to work in a team and he would never let any agency related scientist in his lab.  “We will give you Bella’s sample if you provide us all details about it.” he answered. 

“I don’t like writing reports.” Stark whined. _I could let Jarvis write the report_. Mentally smiling he said: “Alright. You have a deal agent.”

“Wonderful. Come on Bella. Stark we will stay in touch and don’t even try to find out her whereabouts!” he told the fast blinking, half-sided grinning entrepreneur.

* * *

 

A few hours later back on the compounds of the Nevada facilities…

Bella was going down the stairs with slight trepidation. She had filled Phil in about everything that had happened and what she had done to Stark, because he would have to write another report about it. When they had landed he had informed her that she should eat to get her strength up and then she should report to an Agent Harkness on the twenty-fourth base level on the east side of the compound. The only thing she knew about that part of the compound was that if functioned as an underground training site. She would start her fire arm training now. Passing the last corner she came into a bunker like tunnel structure with a few tables and dummies standing prepared to be shot at. Lying on the table where different hand guns neatly prepared. Looking at the different dummies she started to laugh uncontrollable. Each dummy had Edwards face plastered on it and she would shot at it during her lesson _. I can’t wait!_ Among the Edward dummies were several smaller ones which looked like crouched animals, similar to gorillas, walking on two feet with large teeth while wearing blue overalls. She hoped that these animals did not really exist, because they looked terrifying.

“They are called Weasels.” a deep manly voice in an American accent informed her from behind causing her to jump. Turning around her eyes almost popped out as the tall man standing in front of her was almost too handsome to be reel. He looked as if he had walked right out of an American soap opera. His dark brown hair was short; his face was very symmetrical but very manly. He seemed to have a strong and athletic body if his arms where any indication. But somehow his dress code could have been from earlier times, because he was wearing black trousers, a blue shirt with his sleeves rolled up and a black waistcoat. On his left hand right above his wrist he was wearing something brown made of leather. Maybe his watch? No his watch was on the right wrist.

“I’m Agent Jack Harkness and you must be Bella Swan.” he smiled at her showing his perfectly white teeth.  Pointing at the countless hand guns at the table he said:”You need to know how to use these, but I hope you never have to.”

Moving towards the table Bella giggled slightly saying: “I’m sorry. It’s just I do not even kill spiders in the bath!” Looking at the ceiling as if thinking he grinned:

”Neither do I. Not with a gun!” he joked causing her to laugh again but by saying “It’s all yours” the severity of the situation came back to her. She was here to learn how to use these deadly weapons. To say she was terrified was an understatement. She had respect using these things. Sensing her hesitation he gave her yellow glasses and ear protection with microphones on it while putting on the same. He took one of the handguns and showed her how to put the magazine in and how to click the safety of. Standing next to her she repeated the process and accidentally pointed the gun at her teacher who jumped behind her arm pushing it away from her. In a stricter voice scaring her he said: “Targets that way!”

 Breathing in deep she murmured: “Right”. Her instructor was too close for her liking. He was confusing her. She took the gun firmly in her hand and tried to get ready by stretching both of her hands to the ceiling, but was stopped once again by her teacher who had stepped behind her and was taking in her left ear by pulling her hands down again.

“Let’s leave the roof in one piece. Shall we?” His voice had an amused note and he was flashing his white teeth again. He loosened her grip of her left hand and told her:”One hand, not two.”. By putting his hands on her shoulders he pulled her in a standing position parallel to himself.

 “Turn sideways to the target.” he went on. _Why is he putting my hair away?_ _He is standing too close!_ She could feel his breath on her neck and her breath accelerated. She just wanted to kick him. Natasha had sent her a text earlier saying:“Have fun!” His hand moved from her shoulder down and was brought up as if he was carrying a gun while saying:

“Looking along your shoulder, down your arm, straight line to the sights.”  “Bring up the gun.” he told her which she immediately followed but it was too fast for his liking because he corrected her by stopping it and pulling her closer to her by holding her right shoulder firmly. “Not so fast. Relax. It’s all in the breathing.” he told her and Bella tried to control her breathing by concentrating to let it out through the mouth. Meanwhile Agent Harkness took her hand in which she was holding the gun and guided her up again.

“Hold it firmly, don’t grip it.” His warmth disappeared from behind her back and his second hand came forward to her gun. Bella’s gaze followed the hand until he did something on the gun, that she could shoot and he moved back to the former position. Following his gentle voice helped her to focus. “Breath in, focus, breathe out.” Finally he said: Squeeze gently. When she did all the tension which had built up since she had stepped into the room snapped with her first gunshot.” 

With a surprised “Wow” and a following giggle she gave her ease words. She had actually hit the target; even better she had shot the target wearing Edwards face into his testicles. Agent Harkness laughingly pulled her closer on her shoulders again and told her:”Well, done! That was a joint effort!” Stepping away from her he told her. “Try it again. This time on your own. And remember what I have showed you.”

She did, with the same result and with each new gun he showed her new things, corrected her stance, and explained particularities of special guns or how to walk properly while shooting a gun.

 “A bit lower. Yeah!”   “Breathe first, then go”, etc… . Could be heard in the bunker. Soon the two started to experiment with the different targets. He showed her to aim and shoot and she repeated it with growing fun.

Agent Jack Harkness who was incorporated into S.H.I.E.L.D. from the TORCHWOOD institute in Cardiff, Wales had absolutely loved to tease the girl. He had done his homework on her and wanted to make her laugh as much as possible after what he had found out. He had already instructed his employees there to look into the vampires. Maybe they had something stored that could help them to destroy them. But he would not be Jack Harkness without a little bit of flirting and the way she had been frightened of the handguns suggested that she had needed a different approach to handguns. She was a beautiful girl and he was certain that she would evolve in an even more beautiful woman one day. After her first shot she had lost her shyness in small steps and given one shot after the other and seemed to have just as much fun as he had. He had been surprised when she had finally asked if she could try to shoot with two handguns and he was absolutely glad that he was her instructor and not the vampire boy she was angry at because she shot every available dummy with his face on the head between his eyes and in the second round she shot his testicles off. Having completely emptied both of her handguns she stretched her arms in happiness while pointing them at the ceiling.

Looking at the time he saw that it was already way past midnight and he had to send her back to her room otherwise a worried agent Coulson would burst into the room soon.

“Nice, work” he gratulated her. “Like I said. I hope you never have to use ‘em. Maybe we call it a day now and you come back tomorrow?“  He suggested only getting a very enthusiastic response: “Definitely. Same time?”

“Yeah.”

* * *

 

Unknown to them Alice had finally managed to get a vision of Bella. Edward was absolutely livid as the instructor who was the epitome of smug, handsome American seemed to not be able to get his hand of her. And worst of all there was growing a familiarity between these two training with handguns. The assembled hunters and trackers in the hall should find her soon, otherwise …


	13. A new enemy

Bella was dodging another one of her opponent’s vicious attacks. Six month of almost every day physical martial arts training with Natasha, Clint and other agents and her clumsiness was a thing of the past. Fighting against Natasha was the most difficult practice, because she never held back lately and Bella learned a lot from her. Clint was fighting like a protective mother hen or like a bigger brother and demanded a lot during practice, but she had detected that he always pulled his punches. For the other agents she was training with, she was still the rookie, who hadn’t even been to the academy. This meant that they loved to prank her and never held back.  She had no problems anymore to run at full speed for hours, and fight against more than one opponent. Her weapon training had been extended to not only small handguns, but also other, bigger ones, knives, swords and grenades. Agent Harkness, was a big help because she still had huge respect for these kind of things.

She knew that these arms were not for fun, but for taking lives and she did not know if she would be able to take one if she had too. When she had asked him why she had to learn how to use swords Natasha’s only response had been:”You’d be surprised.” Harkness had told her that no one would expect her to kill, but she should be aware of scenarios where she could save countless lives by killing just one person. Unfortunately she could imagine them, but still did not like it. Knowing that she would not be able to go to any university in the foreseeing future, Bella had downloaded several reading lists of the biggest universities and was slowly working through them.  Too slowly for her taste. To her uncle’s delight she had also started to expand her knowledge of foreign languages and different slangs. The Roman Languages were no problem for her as they were all quite similar in structure and lexique,   the Semitic languages were more challenging as she had to learn new alphabets, but she soon discovered their similarities and was able to improve slightly. Russian was very challenging for her as she seemed to have a deep rooted distaste for the big country and especially its leader. Knowing only parts of what had been done to Natasha in the Red Room the distaste created, for the first time in her life, learner’s block for learning a language. Natasha even needed to tutor her: A fact which had her uncle, Clint and Eric in stitches. A week after her adventurous graduation she had finally gotten rid of her vampire scar through a surgery. The team removing the changed tissue had diligently removed it and Dr. Cho had then proceeded to create new tissue. She really could not tell the difference between Dr. Cho’s created tissue and her own. Some late evenings she was sitting in her small bed and marvelled at the technology she was surrounded with and her being free of the cold ugly scar.  Stark and S.H.I.E.L.D. had then fought over the small sample. Stark had finally found, after long and tedious negotiations, a compromise with the agency. This was the first compromise he had ever made in his life and was a real testimony how important the current vampire problem was. He worked in a S.H.I.E.L.D. facility for the uncovering any secrets the tissue held.

Bella saw finally an opening in her opponents defence and wanted to use it, but just as she tried to move her right hand a disturbingly loud and regular sound appeared, which she knew meant evacuation. _What the hell is happening?_ All the agents around her froze and after a heartbeat started running to help with the evacuation. Jogging through the corridor to her sleeping area she saw Maria Hill, Fury’s second beside her uncle running through the corridor crying something which sounded like Tesseract in her headphone.  Bella stopped in her tracks. If the Tesseract was reacting strangely than she should go down and look if she was able to help Eric stabilizing it. She had after all read his work, allowed or not, and helped him with the base calculations sometimes. With his connections to several top notch Universities she thought it best to help him. Clint was also down there surveying everything while Natasha was on a mission in Russia.

  _Maybe I should ask Phil? Nah, no time._

With that she ran towards the area where she knew the stairs were. Taking the lift during an evacuation was never a good idea and the protocol was forbidding it except moving tech. Fast running and skipping several steps she finally managed to come down fast to the lowest base level and raced along the corridor grey buzzing with people.  The security door towards the stairs had been open. This was not good!

“Eric, what is going on? Can I help?” she asked jogging towards her mentor past the testing apparatus and the screening panels.

“Bella. No, The Tesseract is just misbehaving. Look at the readings!” he mentioned. The blond NASA scientist in the room rolled her eyes at her not believing that Selvick included the girl without a degree.

Bella stood next to the blonde scientist and checked the readings of the past four hours. Eric and another scientist stood in front of the Tesseract again and every time they tried to poke it with a large metal stick it spiked as if it was defending itself. Bella checked again and realised that they must have tried to shut the electricity off, but as the Tesseract was an energy source it was turning itself on again. But what worried her most was the gradual fast rising energy levels. And low level gamma radiation. She knew that alpha and beta radiation was not dangerous to the human being, but gamma radiation was very harmful. If that thing exploded then it would be hundred times worse than Tschernobyl. Suddenly there was another fluctuation on the screen which indicated, like the readings before that there would be a bigger spike.

“Talk to me doctor.” came the voice from the director walking towards Selvick and the Tessaract.

“Director.” Selvick stated stepping down from the walkway the Tessaract was on.

“Is there anything certain?”

“The Tessaract is misbehaving.” he said and the blue cube was spiking just as he said the word misbehaving while the scientist standing before it hissed.

“Is that supposed to be funny?” Fury scolded.

“No it’s not funny at all.” Selvick answered him promptly. “She is not only active but she is …behaving.”

“I assume you pulled the plug.” Fury wanted to know. He knew that sometimes scientists were only focused on complicated problems and did not think about the simplest answers to solutions. 

Nodding at the director he said:”She is a power source. We turn off the power, she turns it back on. If it reaches peak level…”

“You’ve been prepared for this, doctor.” Fury interrupted him. “Harnessing energy from space.”

“We don’t have to harness.” Selvick answered him from behind the screen.”Our calculations are far from complete. She is throwing off interference. Radiation. Nothing harmful. Low levels of gamma radiation.”

Fury who had been staring at the very object of their conversation turned his gaze back to the scientist and stated:”That can be harmful.”

Looking at the data again Bella started to get an idea, but she hoped that she was wrong. “Eric, I think I have an idea.” she called him and had several set of eyes on her. _Why did I not keep my mouth shut?_ She hated that she was temporarily the centre of attention.

“Agent Swan, what are you doing down here?” the director asked her knowing full well that he had allowed her to assist Selvick from time to time.

 _He calls me agent?_ “Sorry, I heard Agent Hill saying something about the Tesseract and looked if I would be able to help. The security doors to the stairs was open.” she stated and received a nod from him.

“What idea do you have concerning the Tesseract?” Eric asked her but she started to explain.

“We are creating a portal to the other end of space to harness energy. If we have done nothing to set it off, then maybe it is from the other side?” she explained.

“The other side?” Fury clarified.

“Yes. A portal can be open from both sides. We do not know where it originally came from. We do not know the technology out there. So maybe the tampering has been from the other side.” Bella explained further getting a very pensive look from the large man. 

Turning away from her he ordered Barton down from his “nest”, via his headpiece, who came sliding down a rope and reported. “No one has come or gone when it started spiking. Bella was the first running down after the evacuation alarm. Selvick’s clean, no contacts.” Pointing at Bella he stated further:”Like the kid said, the tampering wasn’t on our side. “

The blond NASA scientist called again.”Doctor, it’s spiking again.” But this time it was one of the strongest spikes as it shook the entire building and Bella pulled the other two men down the ramp who were all to happy to comply and followed her as she put more distance between them and the blue cube, which seemed to not stop his spiking. As a matter of fact it seemed that the spikes became more frequent as if they were counting down to something. All eyes were on the Tesseract whose spiking accelerated while looking like a blue spiral and Bella did not dare to breathe as her heart started to beat faster. 

All of a sudden there was a dull loud sound and the Tesseract was spiking with its longest spike towards the higher round walkway and created a round formation completely of energy, but in the round energy circle Bella could make out something that looked suspiciously like space and stars. It seemed that she had been right earlier. Just as she started to accept that she saw real stars inside a huge bunker, there was an explosion of blue energy which forced her back a few steps and forced her to close her eyes. With her closed eyes she could hear a sizzling sound and someone breathing heavily far away. When she opened her eyes again she stood next to Fury and saw someone kneeling on the round walkway at the very end of the room. Four heavily armed security guys were slowly and soundlessly moving towards the stranger. The stranger was slowly looking up, still breathing heavily. He had black shoulder long hair, was very pale, almost as pale as a vampire, dressed in dark clothes and was holding a spear. Every fibre in Bella’s body was screaming danger and she did not even have a weapon to defend anyone or herself. While the stranger was slowly standing up he took in his surroundings and saw the four men slowly moving towards him. Two man standing next to the Tessaract with a familiar looking, dark haired female. He narrowed his eyes at her.

_What in Odin’s cursed name is the girl from my dreams doing here?_

“Sir, please put down the spear!” the dark skinned man who seemed to be their leader ordered. But Loki had no desire to put down his weapon. Looking almost lovingly at the crystal as if contemplating it he suddenly stopped and fired an energy spike towards the man who was pulled aside by the smaller man next to him. The girl also jumped out of the way and therefore he missed his target, but all hell broke loose as four men started shooting something at him which never went through his armour. Jumping down at two he killed them with his spear and he shot two of his hidden knives at the other two also killing them instantly.

“Shit, I need a weapon!” Bella cursed and Barton tossed her one of his countless hidden handguns which she immediately unlocked. While Loki attacked the blond NASA scientist, she kneeled next to Barton and started shooting at the stranger’s head, who reacted by shooting another of his spear’s spikes towards them. She and Barton jumped out of the way in time but one of the other security men was hit full on. Barton, having emptied his clip just managed to stand again when the alien man came at him again with his spear, but Barton moved out of the way and tried to attack him trying hand on hand combat. Unfortunately the large man stopped him and held his left arm. Trying to wiggle out of the grip Barton realised that he was not strong enough.

“You have heart.” the stranger said lifting his spear towards his prey’s heart and Bella still lying on her stomach on the floor saw that Barton’s eyes turned a dark shade of blue and then into a lighter shade of blue while he gasped and stopped fighting the stranger. When he looked at the stranger every malice towards him was gone. Bella could not stand and watch and before she knew what she was doing she jumped up and attacked the stranger herself while she shouted:”No! Barton!”

 Just as she about to reach him he turned around and caught her arm. His delicate hand was cold and she did not want the same to happen to her. She did not want to lose her mind again. He was controlling Barton! She kicked towards his hopefully vulnerable area, but he blocked her again bringing up the spear to her heart.

“You are a spirited fighter! I need that.” he smiled putting the spear above her heart and she could feel the cold rushing over her body towards her head, but it just washed over her and never reached her eyes. Instead it looked as if it was repelled back into the crystal. The smiling stranger lost his winning smile as if he could not explain what he had just witnessed. He lessened the pressure holding her hand as he stared at his spear in wonder. Bella still having a clear head wiggled out of his grip, spanned around and kicked her elbow with all force against the spot between his shoulder blades and to his astonishment he bowed forward from the force of her attack. Angry he retaliated by turning around and pushing her. Bella had no time to process what just happened as she flew backwards. Letting her temporarily out of his sight he touched one other man with his spear which automatically became his minion.

In the mean time Fury had used the distraction of the fight to get the Tessaract in its usual silver metal case which was specifically designed for the cube. Bella slowly stood up again. Her back would probably get some nasty bruises. She crouched to one of the dead security guards and unclipped his still unused handgun. She knew she could not attack the stranger, but the Tessaract in his hands was unthinkable. The damage he could do was completely unthinkable. She had to help Fury get the Tessaract out of the stranger’s reach.

Just as Fury closed the case and stood up the dark haired stranger said:”Please don’t”

 It almost sounded vulnerable. “I still need that.”

But Fury rebuked. “This does not have to get any messier.”

But the arrogant pale man hissed.”Of course it does. I’ve come too far for anything else.” Fury turned around again. “I am Loki. Of Asgard.” The stranger finally presented his name.

Eric, bowing over the blond NASA scientist and checking for a pulse seemed to know the name as his head perked up. “Loki!” he murmured standing up.  Bella had heard from the incident in New Mexico from her uncle when he had explained how he had first met the scientist. This was the maniac which had sent the Destroyer to flatten a whole small town, because he was jealous of his elder brother!

_Not good!_

“And I come with glorious purpose.” Loki was interrupted by Eric who was standing up while calling “Loki, brother of Thor.” ;which seemed to madden his look.

“Eric, step back.” Bella ordered. _He walks too close to him!_

“We have no quarrel with your people.” Fury calmly tried to convey to the mad man.

“An ant does not have a quarrel with a boot.” Loki said but was interrupted by an irritated Bella. “Are you planning to step on us?!”

But he did not answer her directly but started to boast striding towards Eric. “I come with glad tidings.” Turning towards Fury again he stated. “Of a world made free.”

“Free of what!” Fury and Bella said in unison as she stepped next to him on the platform.

“Freedom. Freedom is life’s great lie. Once you accept that in your heart.” he said turning fast towards Eric and Bella could see that another person was becoming Loki’s minion. “Sir, Get the Tessaract, away.” Bella hissed at Fury while she clicked the safety of her new handgun and shouted and waited for the opportune moment.

“You say peace, but I think you mean the other thing.” Fury stated while nodding shortly at Bella to indicate that he had understood her.

“Sir, Director Fury is stalling. This place is ‘bout to blow and drop a hundred feet of rock on us. He means to bury us.” Barton informed Loki while marching up to him.

 “Like the Pharaohs of old.” came the calm answer from the man standing behind her.

“He is right. The portal is collapsing in itself. We have two minutes before this goes critical.” Eric cut in. Loki turned his head towards Barton and nodded. But Bella was faster and shot a warning shot towards the man who had taken part in her training while shouting

“Now!” Fury took her cue and was rushing towards the exit with the case. Loki blocked the shot with his staff and shouted to get after him! Barton, Eric and the security man were on the director’s heels. But Bella had none of it. She could not attack Loki, but the other three were human and she could at least try to stop them. But unfortunately Loki had more tricks up his sleeves. Just as Fury was about to get out of the door Loki appeared in front of him and blocked the door. Bella confused about the two Lokis in the room tried to attack Barton but was pulled back by one of the two Lokis by her hand. Barton gave one shot and obviously hit the director who yelled out in pain. Bella wanted to wiggle out of Loki’s grasp but he pulled her closer and while one hand was holding her, the second arm, still holding the staff, wrapped herself around her throat and she started to have difficulties breathing and she started struggling. He was killing her. She desperately hoped that the director has gotten away with the Tesseract while she could not take it anymore and darkness was engulfing her after such a long time. 

 

 


	14. Captive

trip…trip…trip Was there water splashing? There was definitely water splashing! Bella slowly focused on every sound she could detect. She was obviously not dead if her pain around her neck was any indication. Lying on her left side on a hard wooden bench, at least she thought that it was a one. She realized that she was not bound. _How curious?_   Did Loki believe that she was no threat at all? She could use that. Had the director been able to get away? She really hoped it.That probably meant that she was now Loki’s prisoner and that she had to find a way to get back to S.H.I.E.L.D. Her stomach turned at the idea of being a prisoner of the insane Asgardian. _Why do I always manage to get myself in trouble?_ Suddenly her breath hitched at terrible realisation forming in her hand: She was now completely defenceless against any vampires. If Alice or another tracker was able to find her location then all she had a bigger problem and everything she had learned so far would have been in vain. She could not be caught! What if they were already on their way!

  _Ok. Bella. Focus! You need to get out of here. Fast._ she mentally scolded herself. _Time_ _to use Nat’s lessons: Rule number one: Don’t get caught.  Too late for that one. Rule two: If you are caught assess the situation properly and try to escape at the first chance you get and if you can take as much information with you as you can._

Focusing again on the sounds around her she realized that there had to be at least two other people in her room. Why two and why were they inside her room?  Guarding her outside of the room would be more effective.  She heard two different breathing patterns resonating in the small room. She slowly opened her eyelids a bit letting the neon light blind her for a second and tried to spy through her eyelashes, just as Natasha had told her to. In the small room with brownish yellow tiles she could make out two launching men in black combat suits guarding the only door. There was no way that she could escape with both of them inside. And she did not know if Loki wanted her alive. She guessed and hoped so otherwise she would probably already be dead, but that did not mean that those two would not shoot at her. No she needed an escape plan. She needed to separate those two. Taking a wild guess she hoped that if anything unusual would happen to her one of the two would go to inform Loki.  _Please let this work_. She thought, mentally apologizing to any people who were actually affected by this dreadful condition and started to imitate a heavily convulsing body while thrashing her body seemingly out of control.  She heard the two men jump up and shout commands, and then she could hear a door slam and one of the men was shouting at her and trying to hold her by her right shoulder. This was her chance! She immediately stopped and surprised her opponent by opening her eyes and violently slamming her right hand against his throat. As he was kneeling beside her bench this was enough to knock him down and Bella used his temporary distraction and jumped up and slammed his head against the floor, effectively knocking him out. _Natasha was right! Man are like babies!_ Chuckling she quickly unclipped his gun and headed for the door. She did not know how far Loki was from his particular room but she had to get away. Slowly opening the door she saw that she was in some kind of old tiled underground tunnel reminding her of London underground stations used during WWII for safeguarding people during air strikes. Just as she wanted to step out, feeling her rapid heartbeat, she could hear fast running towards her location and she quickly slipped back into the room for temporary safety and prayed to any god that might be out there that they were not coming for her. She stood with her heart racing, holding her breath with the wall to her back. No, they were luckily only passing past her door and she could hear their steps quieten down with the growing distance.

This was her chance to escape. As she finally slipped out of the door she wanted to run to the right as she assumed that this would lead her outside, but she could not go back to S.H.I.E.L.D empty handed. She needed to know if Fury had to get away and in case not she had to make sure that the agency would find the cube again. The worst thing she could do was to escape and discover that she had been held at the very place the cube could be found. She had to lure the agency here and for that she had to see what was going on and ideally there should be computers. Realising that she was still in her training outfit she mentally groaned. She should have stripped her guard of his combat suit. Everyone would see that she was not part of this operation. But maybe if she held herself like one of them she could walk without problems. She doubted it. Gripping her stolen gun harder she carefully tiptoed along the filthy corridor towards the commotion. She could hear people chatter, tools clatter and the unmistakeable sound of keyboards. _I really hope they have Wi-Fi_. Bella carefully spotted around the corner, feeling her erratic heartbeat in her throat and could see two big men with Kalashnikovs protecting an entrance which was covered with glassy plastic panels to walk through. But how should she get past them?

* * *

 

A few rooms further, sitting on the ground, rested the God of mischief for the first time in a long time. One hand on his sceptre and the other on his left lower leg he contemplated what he had encountered so far on his brother’s favourite planet. He had to admit they were more advanced than he had anticipated. But he had been shocked to discover that the girl he had dreamt about or had visions about during his time in Thanos’ hands, was real and she was able to withstand the power of his sceptre. He did not know how she was able to do it, but he had several theories. He knew that she could be a huge liability if kept alive, as he did not know what else she was able to do, but he could not bring himself to give the order to kill her. She was intriguing, a puzzle he wanted to solve and he loved puzzles. When she had been hesitant to shoot the assassin called Hawkeye he knew that they knew each other to some point and therefore he had ordered him to tell him all he knew about her. To say that she had gone through a lot was an understatement. She had been abandoned for some time from those she had considered family: The so called Cold Ones. They had been intoxicating her with their pheromones. She had been bitten by one and had survived. Her parents had been brutally murdered and she had found the wrangled body of her father. The location he had encountered her had been her safe haven from the vampires hunting for her. _Did they really believe that she would be safe there?_ They were fools. What they were planning to do with her was absolutely gruesome and even for him this was unacceptable. When he would finally be in control of this world he would eradicate those pests. Every single one of them! He would prove to the Allfather that he was a worthy king and that he could take care of his subjects. He would take care of the girl; even though the archer had told him that she would fight him with everything she got. To his dismay his musings were cut short by the activation of his staff. His mind was called back to where it had been trained.

“The Chitauri grow restless!” the blue-grey minion of the Titan Thanos, standing on the heavily eroded rock somewhere in the universe stated accusingly. His tone implied that he believed Loki to be stalling their departure. Thanos had declared the Asgardian ready for his mission to gather the Tessaract, he had been the hardest individual to manipulate to their will. What if he was not really ready to serve them and was able to sneak out of their grasp.

“Let them guard themselves. I will lead them into glorious battle.” Loki answered projecting his striding image on the asteroid. He was looking exactly like he had looked at Asgard: His green and golden armour, his golden helmet with his horns, Thor had often teased him with and his father’s staff. 

“Battle?”The Other questioned stepping angrily forward, partially hidden behind a rock. “Against the meagre mirth of Earth?”  He could not believe that Loki was taking so long. Everyone knew that this world was one of primitives. It should not take that long to open a portal!

Loki answered confidently strutting in the opposite direction “Glorious, not lengthy.” But then he turned and goated the other creature. “If your forces are as formidable as you claim.” To his delight the other one took the bait and responded angrily:

”You question us! You question him! He, who put the sceptre in your hand, he, who gave you ancient knowledge, and a new purpose.  You were cast out, Defeated!”

But this time Loki still staring at his sceptre, was the one who became angry as the Other seemed to know exctly which nerves to push and snapped:"I was a king! The rightful king of Asgard. Betrayed." Loki spat at the Other, knowing full well that the Other loved tormenting him with his supposed shortcomings towards his adopted brother.

"Your ambition is little, born of childish need. We look beyond the Earth to greater worlds the Tesseract will unveil." the blue creature boasted with confidence. This little Asgardian was a nuisance that they had to accept until they had the Tessaract.

But still unknown to him there was someone trying to get a hold of the prince before him. A powerful witch who desperately wanted her son back after she had finally managed to locate him with her magic and the golden gatekeeper of Asgard.

Loki threatened after hearing the soft, almost faint whisper sounding remarkably like his dear adoptive mother "You don't have the Tesseract yet.”

The Other became enraged at the Asgardian’s threat and was before him ready to strike him within a blink of an eye.

“I don't threaten, but until I open the doors, until your force is mine to command, you are but words." Loki stated smugly. But the Other had one last ace against him as he slowly advanced towards Loki and circled him with raspy angry voice:

”You can have your war. Asgardian. If you fail, if the Tesseract is kept from us, there will be no Realm, no barren moon, no dark crevice where we can’t find you. You think you know pain?” Loki got glassy eyes at the remembrance of the pain lancing through him during his “training” by Thanos’ henchman. To emphasize the spoken threat the Other used their mental connection and sent him another wave of pain through the delicate nervous system of the fallen Asgardian.

_Fight the hold he has on you?_

_Which hold?_ He would bring him the Tessaract and in exchange he would get Midgard and he would never have to feel the pain, Thanos had inflicted on him.

_The Tessaract in Thanos hands is too dangerous too imagine!_

But he ignored the nagging sensation in the back of his mind. His mother could have no idea where to find him. He was not of her blood, so there were only a limited magical rituals to find him. Or did she?

When the pain in his head subsided he carefully opened his eyes again which were temporarily blinded by the neon light which he absolutely abhorred as it was a cold light. There was nothing better then the warm red, orange and blue light cast by burning, cracking wood in a big fireplace. Like the ones Asgard. What would he give to feel that warmth again. As he finally realized which direction his thoughts where taking he shook his head to clear his head. He had to focus. One of his security men was desperately trying to get his attention but he just ignored it. Were was Barton when you needed him? They knew that they should never speak directly to him, but to his second in command: Barton.  Silently he let his gaze meander over the countless scientists the Hawk gathered in an impressively fast time. He had to admit he had chosen well as that man worked diligently and was absolutely deadly. Loki suddenly paused at the sight of an unfamiliar female scientist. Barton had brought every single one of them before him to be scrutinized as  he could remember faces very well but this female was unknown to him.  She looked slightly familiar, but he was not able to place her. She was wearing wide black pants, a white coat like the others, her hair was tucked up on the back of her head and she wore the biggest, glasses he had ever seen making her look like a large fly with her facettes eyes. She was tipping at the keyboard as if her life depended on it. Loki put his head to the side wondering why she seemed to familiar to him and yet he had not seen her before. When he shifted his gaze on her screen he could see dozens of squares opening where she rapidly tipped in large numbers of codes? This had nothing to do with the Tessaract! As he saw her ducking when Barton marched towards Selvick work station it hit him and he jumped up! This was the girl! She had somehow escaped and she could lead their enemies here! He should have killed her when he had the chance! Snarling he jumped up and speeded towards the girl who did not see him coming as she was trying to break through S.H.I.E.L.D.'s defences as roughly as she could.

* * *

 

She wanted to be detected. She had no idea where they were, but by breaking into the agencies servers using one of her signature techniques to get in and then several voluntary mistakes she would normally never make, once she had broken through the defences they would certainly try to locate her. It would be a miracle to not find her with the "ruckus" she was making on the main server. _God, those blasted glasses!_ They were sweaty, glitchy and she could hardly see. Chewing on her lower lip she hit the keyboards as fast as she could. Barton could not detect her or she would have a serious problem! She had shortly spotted the Asgardian sitting in some sort of trance on the ground and had used the rare opportunity to sneak past him. The jewel on his spear had looked more alive then usual as it had pulsated stronger than the first time. Just as she wanted to press enter for her final code she was suddenly pulled back harshly by a strong hand on her arm. When she looked up at the tall person dragging her her heart skipped. She was dragged by non other than the mental Asgardian! His face was murderous as he forcibly dragged her down the long hallway, past the curious looking scientists. Wriggling and trying to get out of his iron grasp, she realized that she had no chance to evade him as he was dragging her towards the very room she had escaped about half an hour before. Was the man she had knocked out still unconscious? She hoped, but sincerely doubted it. Her heart was racing! She would not give up! Maybe she could manipulate the situation to her advantage. The vampires could already be on the way to get her!

* * *

 

As he finally pushed her through the door he suddenly froze with widening eyes at the unusual sight. One of her big muscly hard sotten guards, was lying on the floor like a small baby sucking happily on his thumb.The deafening silence was occasionally interrupted by the suckling noise coming from the guard. Bella was just as stunned at the sight. _Maybe I have hit his head a tad bit too hard._ Albeit the serious situation she fought hard to not laugh out loud, but her shoulders were almost shaking. Whatever caused this situation was not good!

Very slowly the dark haired Asgardian turned his head towards the girl whose arm he was holding in an icy grip. Had this been her doing? Was she a sorceress or was it someone else? He could see that she was making an effort to not start laughing. If this were a prank than it was similar to those he had sometimes pulled on Asgard, but this was not his doing.

"What did you do to him?" he commanded her to tell him, but was surprised that she did not flinch at his harsh tone. His servants at the palace would have scuttled at it, but not this one. She just shrugged her shoulders and answered:" I just banged his small head on the floor." she chuckled. “Didn't think that it would have this effect"

She was curious for a Midgardian he had to admit that. No! He could not let himself be distractedby her! She was a liability but if he was able to get her on his side she could be a valid asset.

Without any warning he changed his tactic and span around grabbing her other arm with his scepter's hand and pushed her hard towards the wall. Just as her back collided with the old tiled wall Bella hissed at the pain running down her back. She could not wriggle free of his grasp as one arm was completely grasped by his hand and the second arm was only partially in his grasp as he was holding the spear and her arm in his. She had to try to get out of the later grasp as the tall Asgardian was towering over her. He was so close that she could actually smell his scent. He smelled exotic, but she could not find a valid comparison. But she had to admit it was not unpleasant. No, he was crazy, an army of vampires could burst through the door any minute and the Tesseract was still in the lunatics hands. There was no way that she could get distracted now! As she carefully looked up to his eyes to guess his intentions she realized that his hands did not feel cold as they had when she had first encountered him. She also realized that he was looking mesmerized in her eyes. His eyes  had curiously the same colour as the jewel of the spear. Why were they the same colour? He continued to gaze into her eyes as if he was searching for something, and she was not able to break the gaze again. How long they were standing like that she had no idea. It could have been seconds, minutes or hours. She felt a soft tug somewhere in the back of her mind as if something in her head was expanding, but that would not be possible. Loki suddenly closed his eyes looking and trembling as if he were in pain. Gasping he opened them again and Bella could have sworn that they changed to green. No they were green! Definitely. Why were they now green?! The Asgardian shook his head as if he tried to shake off some heavy burden and as he was no looking at her his grip softened, but he did not let her out of it completely. His eyes were smaragd green. It was a beautiful colour. But they had been blue before? Bella wrinkled her eyebrows in confusion. They had been blue before or was she imagining things? Is the sceptre controlling him as much as he is controlling his minions? But why had his eyes changed colour now? She had to find out if he was under the control of his much loved sceptre. But how should she do that?

 


	15. Attack!

Another tracker had returned days ago without any indication where the little mortal child could be. To Aro’s frustration even the twin’s plan had turned against them as they had planned to use the old coot as bait to get Bella out of hiding. But whatever they did it seemed that these mortals were one step ahead of them. The old mortal woman and her entire family had been relocated according to their neighbours, but nobody had known where. Jane had been so angry that she had dispatched the unfortunate miscreants. It must have been in a hurry as the flats and houses still looked as if they could return any moment and her scent had lingered there but it seemed that they had anticipated their move again. Perhaps the Cullen’s appearance had tipped them off. He knew that there was some agency behind it, but the Volturi had never cared to immerse themselves with the politics of mere mortals. Their lives where fleeting and their history tended to repeat it anyway.  Even faster with the new technologies. Years ago Jane and Alex had wanted to kill the people enquiring about the missing bus tours, but their seer had warned them, that they were part of a much bigger plan and should better left untouched. Their disappearance would only have lead the wrong people in their little realm. He was currently starving the entire Cullen clan in their dungeons, and hoped to break their spirits long enough for them to return to the “normal” vampire habits. The empath and Edward were close to breaking anyway, but Carlisle and the rest of the clan showed exceptional constraint. It was quite unnerving.

“My Lord!” An excited gangly pale vampire having the appearance of a dark-blond young man in his mid thirtieth appeared before him. “We have found her! She has left the protection and is with a newly arrived player in London Underground. Some old war bunker. Do we have permission to get her?”

Aro happily put his hands together while a grin started to grow in his marbled face. Finally. They would be able to proceed to the next stage.

With the cold, wet, dirty wall behind her back and the towering dark haired Asgardian in front of her she contemplated how to finally escape him. Well she could try going for his sceptre, but she doubted that he would let go of it and he was probably faster than her. Would she be able to break the connection between the sceptre and Loki if she took it from him? Would it affect her? Why had he not been able to turn her into one of his brainless minions? Natasha would certainly try to confuse him with her femininity, but she had no experience in that and it could seriously backfire.  She carefully glanced to her left, to her right and to the sceptre while biting her lower lip. What should she do?

“Now what?” she asked annoyed and tried to push the Asgardian away while trying to walk past him but he did not bulge.

“You are a curious little thing.” he smirked staring at her, but she did not like that.

“I am certainly not ‘a little thing’, thank you very much!” Bella scoffed crossing her arms in front.

“What now? Are we staying like this? I move this way you move that way?” Bella tried to move past him again but each time he blocked her again and his ever present smirk showed her that he was amused at her tricks to move past him.

“I have better things to do than play amusement for you. So move out of the way.” She pushed at him again, but he only smirked again.

“Play tell, what could you possibly have better thing to do?"

Walking around her he asked, but it was Bella’s turn to smirk as she was now in front of the door and Loki two steps away. She carefully took a step back towards the door. Now she knew which direction was leading outside and she intended to use it. Loki had still not taken another step from his position but he looked puzzled at her as if he tried to figure something out. Did he really not notice that she was about to slip away, maybe he was goading her but as the sceptre caught her gaze again she could see it pulsating and as she was looking at the tall Asgardian she saw the same blue pulsating in his eyes. He was definitely controlled by it. Was the sceptre trying to keep the hold on mind?  Was he fighting it? But how and more importantly, who was controlling him? What could the person behind him gain from their planet? The Tesseract? Well, this was her chance to escape!

She spun around, smashed the door closed and sprinted as fast as she could with a rapidly beating heart towards the right side and along the long and narrow corridor, but she heard a roaring “No!” soon after and she pressed for even more speed. She needed to find the bigger corridors which would most likely lead her up to the surface. Suddenly she almost crashed into two patrol guards with automatic guns coming from around the a corner, skidded to the right in front of them only to turn to the other corridor on the right. She could hear two men running after her plus the Asgardian shouting them to stop her and bring her back alive and unharmed. Why did he not use the same trick he had displayed at their first contact? Was he not able to multitask anymore? Run and do whatever he did? There she could spot a stairway up, but as she ran closer she discovered that there was fencing separating her from her escape road. Damn! As it looked somewhat rusty she jumped at it with her feet raised, but it did not bulge. She fell on her back, rolled to her right side and went back on her feet running towards the other corridor, but just as she sped towards the dark she could spot something red coming towards her and her heart skipped a few beats as she detected the pale reflection and knew that the leeches had found her. But she would not let them take her. She skidded to a halt again and ran back towards her former pursuers while screaming:

“Hostile contact! Hostiles! Take aim!” The confused soon recovered from their initial shock at their former target coming towards them and just took aim as she passed them. She could hear the fast rattling of the automatic weapons and the anguish cries of the two army guys. At least she thought that they were army guys. Turning around the corner again she bumped into Loki and would have fallen to the ground if he had not caught her by her wrist.

“Vampires!” she shouted urgently while pointing to behind her. Loki looked at her, at his sceptre and pulled her swiftly behind him. Too swiftly, as Bella almost kissed the wall.

“Bella. Bella. Bella. You’re a hard girl to find.” came the sickingly sweet voice from the other end of the corridor which straightened her neck hair.

“Well, I have no desire to become one of you anymore, Jane!” she snapped back while her heart was so rapidly that she could feel it in her neck. “Did you really think that I would not find out about your plans?” _I need a weapon!_

“You have no choice, my little mortal.” Jane said varying her pitch into a singsong. “Our laws cannot be broken and you have broken two already.” she said finally stepping into the harsh cold neon light with her brother close behind her.  “I’ll make it simple for you: Come with us now and we grant everyone in these tunnels a quick death. Refuse and we will make you watch them suffer.” Jane smiled in eager anticipation. “I personally prefer the latter.”

“You will turn around and leave her alone.” Loki cut in Jane’s monologue with a booming voice for the first time. “Isabella Swan is under **my** protection and is therefore not to be harmed.”

Several seconds trickled by until suddenly Jane burst into high pitched laughter, together with the five other Vampires behind her.

 “You stupid little man! Do you really think that you could stop us from taking what is ours? Who do you think you are?”

It was obvious that Loki did not like to be called little as he balled his left hand into a fist. “I am Loki of Asgard and future ruler of this realm.” he proudly claimed while straightening his stance ready to fight.

 “If you take her now, I will hunt you down and exterminate your species as soon as this realm is fully under my control. Should you decide to go back from whence you came I will grant you some pitiful rock on this planet where you can hunt. Decide wisely.”  Bella could feel her rapid heartbeat at her throat, began to see black spots clouding her vision and she realized that she had held her breath.

“Well, Loki, supposed God of Mischief from Norse Mythology. I don’t believe a word you say and we will take Bella. Her Edward is waiting and yearning for her.” she snickered and her face became emotionless again.

“Loki! Watch out!” Bella called from behind him, but it was useless. She saw him tensing with pain and the Vampires slowly moving towards them as if in slow motion and she dared not to blink. No she could not let them take her! She had to protect Loki. He was her only chance against them at the moment and to prevent a blood bath, but she had nothing to hold against them. Loki’s sceptre was the only valuable weapon and even if she were able to grab it in time there was no chance that she could use it. To the delight of the vampires her heartbeat accelerated with her increased panic as if it was about to jump out of her breast. She knew she was stronger but not that strong! She could not let everything she learned to be in vain or all the people she had befriended disappoint or never see again. She could not leave her “uncle” without talking thoroughly about her strong suspicion of him being her birth father. So far she had not dared ask him about it as she had feared to be wrong about it. But she could not let it be unresolved! She would not give up.

Heartbeats before she saw the Vampire reach Loki and her, something in the back of her head expanded further than in the small room an hour earlier, moved over Loki and stopped the Vampires in their tracks. _What the hell, is that?_ At least she believed that it had expanded over Loki, as his tensing had stopped and he stood in front of her again ready to fight. _Did I do that?_

“That was the wrong decisions!” he snarled, while jumping high in the air towards to vampires while quickly dispatching them with his sceptre which suddenly seemed to be razor sharp. Or was he using that much brutal strength. Jane took several steps back and focused on the man again, but whatever he did he suddenly seemed to be immune towards her powers. _Another immune one?!_ The third vampire was dispatched before her eyes and Alec tried his luck with his power but Loki angrily lifted him up and pushed him towards the wall which cracked at the impact of his back.   _How can he do that!? He is not a vampire!_

“I told you that Bella Swan is under my protection and you do well to remember it.” he angrily shouted emphasizing it by pulling and smashing Alec’s body towards the wall with every word. He then proceeded to point the sceptre towards Alec’s front and with clear precision the blue light moved over his body and cut the vampire into pieces as blue lines appeared on his neck, arms and legs. Jane, who had stayed there paralyzed from the shock came out of her stupor and snarled while hurling herself towards Loki. _No! Not my brother!_ But as she was about to grab him her grip moved through the Asgardian who suddenly grabbed her from behind and pushed her to the opposite wall cracking the poor wall and putting some fine cracks on Jane’s marble skin before she fell forward on the ground again.

“What shall I do with you?” Loki slowly asked while slowly prancing towards her with his happily glowing sceptre. “I almost want to let you go as you clearly know of our location, but you might bring more of your blood sucking parasites.  …. No. Better let them wonder.” he smirked while Jane looking terrified tried to hastily crawl backwards only to be caught with the wall in her back again. Loki swiftly aimed her sceptre at her and quickly dispatched the teenage looking vampire with one shot of blue from the sceptre until her body parts were scattered with the others in the room.

Bella seeing the different body parts of her enemies lying on the dirty ground realized that  her betting on the madman Loki had just saved her life but she did not know what exactly had happened. What was the thing that had expanded from her head? Had she done that? Was she crazy? She felt exhausted, ready to fall asleep. But she could not fall asleep know! She had difficulties concentrating and shivered as if she had exhausted some muscles she did not know about. The thing expanding from the back of her head wavered and disappeared and she staggered to the right wall to support her as her legs gave way and she tiredly slid down until she sat on the cold hard, semi wet ground as she watched Loki step over the scattered body parts. “It’s not over.” she whispered. “They need to be burned immediately, the two guards who died too, otherwise they’ll come back.”

Loki now coming towards her stopped in his tracks and looked back to the limp parts. With one swish of his right hand they started to scarily rearrange themselves into a pile while the bodies of the two guardsmen were dragged over the floor as if from invisible hands towards the pile and made Bella jump. Bella’s breath hitched as she was reminded of several horror movies where the victims or rather their body parts were drawn to their inescapable death. Loki now fully turned towards the waist-high pile of limps and dead bodies and said something in a language she did not understand. As he pushed his right hand away from him there was a golden spark which light the pile and she could watch as the limps were caught in the golden, all consuming fire. He has lighted the pile in here! Underground!

“Are you crazy!” Bella exclaimed horrified! “You are killing us all! There is not sufficient ventilation. We will suffocate and what if the tunnel catches fire!”

But Loki only smiled with glee and shook his head as he strode towards her again:”Little mortals. No idea about the usefulness of magic.”

Bella glanced from Loki back to the rapidly sinking pile, and yet she could not smell anything. How was this possible? _Did he say magic?_ _I’ve officially arrived in crazy town!_ Bella thought to herself shaking her head. _But then I am stalked by vampires._

Loki stopped in front of her, swat down, still towering over her while grinning like a Cheshire cat and Bella just wanted to kick him hard in his easy to look at face in annoyance or where he would hurt most, even though he had saved her live moments ago only to wipe that annoying grin of his face. “Well, Bella Swan. You just made yourself even more valuable and indispensable.” _Stop talking in Riddles!_ Bella mentally growled.

“So, I suppose there isn’t a chance that you will let me go as I am clearly a security risk to your, ahm, operation ” Bella asked nonplussed, but decided that she would continue trying. Loki started to open his mouth to retort something, but was interrupted by the noise of running boots towards their location until several armed guys led by Barton came into view.

“Sir, we were just informed about a breach in the eastern parameter.” Barton stated stopping right in front of Loki taking in the scene of Bella tiredly sitting on the ground and a pile of burning bodies. She could have sworn that he looked concerned for a second, but when she blinked it was gone. _Maybe I am just looking so hard for the real Clint behind the puppet that I’m imagining things?_

“It has been taken care of, but you need to strengthen security and better watchmen for this one.” Loki ordered pointing at a scoffing Bella who crossed her hands in front of her. “The two you’ve assigned were clearly useless.”

Clint signalled one of the men which came with him and dragged Bella onto her feet again, to which she heavily protested. “Hey! Don’t touch me, puppet!” she called trying to wiggle out of his grip and trying to make herself heavier, but to no avail. He just was stronger than her and had more experience in handling difficult people. Hell, he had brought Natasha to S.H.I.E.L.D. That could not have been easy. The second man took out handcuffs and she protested even more, trying to thrash her hands around and kicking with her feet! No one would put her in handcuffs! How should she be able to defend herself! Clint was agile enough to block her kicks, but the second one was not so lucky and as he heard a startled exclamation of pain the second man let her go of her arm as he dropped to the floor holding his most precious parts she knew that she had hit at least one target. But it seemed that Clint also had enough of her behaviour and with two well placed kicks brought her to the floor again and put the cold, handcuffs on. _Curse you! Clint!_ Bella thought angrily. No she had to look for a metal pin or a small wire somewhere. Lifting her head she saw Loki leaning at the other side of the wall with the sceptre in his hand while watching her little fight with an amused grin.  Clint dragged her up again although her legs protested again. She was now more tired than before but he and the other men clearly saw it as her continued protesting against them.

A few minutes later she was entering the bustling room of all the scientists again and she was lead towards the exact same spot Loki had been sitting when she had first tried to sneak past him, but she would not give up. With one final try she threw herself against the guard walking on her right side and crushed him into one of the workstation, before she was pulled back again by several strong hands. But what they had not seen was the barely visible thing she had stolen from the station and what know felt cold hidden in her closed hands behind her back.

As she had anticipated she was seated at the exact same spot as Loki had before. Clattering tools, tapping, mumbling could be heard all around her.  Bella hoped that Loki would not personally guard her. He couldn’t have the time, could he? Apparently he did as he sat next to her on the ground, nodded at the men surrounding them, who moved towards various places in the large room and he turned towards her. This could not be good.

* * *

 

“Sir, we’ve detected an unauthorized access on S.H.I.E.L.D.’s main server in the Hub, about an hour ago.” Agent Maria Hill informed her one-eyed boss on the Helicarrier’s bridge after the doors behind Romanov and Banner closed.

“Nothing was downloaded, but the curious thing is that someone has tried to access Agent Coulson’s file.”

Director Fury’s expression was unreadable, but Agent Hill knew that he was contemplating several scenarios.  “Were you able to trace it back?” he asked.

“No. The attack was too short, but we detected at seven out of ten identified signature coding strategies of Isabella Swan and one message.  I believe that she tried to contact us but was unsuccessful.”  Fury nodded with his hands behind his back. “At least we know that she is still on our side. Keep an eye out if she is able to contact us.”

Agent Hill nodded and turned to go back to her station but stopped. “Sir, I’ve wondered. Agent Coulson is remarkably calm considering that his goddaughter was taken. Does he know or is he under the influence of some calming draught?”

Watching Coulson hovering near the workstations of the digital searchers he answered: “Yes, to the first, no to the second. He is being professional, but I recommend watching him when we find her again. He’ll probably lose his countenance again” Fury answered thin lipped.

 


	16. Stuttgart

It was calm as the Asgardian sun slowly descended into the Horizon bathing the golden high buildings in reddish, golden colour, yet the normally all seeing guardian in his golden armour standing on the edge of the abyss, where the best of the engineers usually worked to rebuilt the bifrost from morning till the evening, was not admiring its beauty. Prince Loki, had finally surfaced and as he heard the sound of fast approaching hooves on the Rainbow Bridge he knew that would have to tell the queen that her “son” had finally been found. Yet not under the circumstances that he wished for her.

“Heimdall.” Prince Thor greeted while he got off his white stallion, mirroring his father in his golden armour.

“You have urgent news?” King Odin asked omitting any formalities Asgardians normally loved to dwell on.

“I do, my liege.” Heimdall answered  “Midgard is under siege.”

“By whom?” Odin enquired while Thor gripped his hammer tighter in growing anger and probably fear for his mortal.

“Your son Loki is leading the attack.” Heimdall answered scanning the soldiers who protected their queen who gasped horrified.

 “Prince Loki has surfaced on Midgard. I do not yet know how he came to be there, but he just appeared and started to create havoc, has slain several Midgardians standing in his way, mentally enslaved others and abducted the girl hunted by the white creatures.”

Queen Freya held her hand in front of her mouth as if she were sick. To her this did not sound like Loki at all as he usually used magic and strategy to beat his opponents. His death toll was usually lower than that of Thor’s and she had felt his pain as she had woven a magical connection with him when she had taken him in as her son.  “He is not himself. We have to bring him back to Asgard.” Queen murmured to herself.

“I agree, he seems different, your majesty.” Heimdall nodded “but the Bifrost is still not working and every minute we wait, more innocents are suffering and dying.

“We must find a way to get me to Midgard, Father. He can’t be allowed to roam it.” Thor growled turning angrily towards his father in unconscious imitation of his behaviour which had led to his adventurous exile with his hammer statically humming.

“Agreed. This cannot continue. I have to prepare to gather enough dark matter to send you through to Midgard.” Odin answered calmly turned towards his son who breathed in relieved. Coordinate with Heimdall and your mother to prepare whatever you need on Midgard, while I will gather the Dark Matter.” Odin commanded, went back to his horse and rode back towards the palace.

* * *

 

Bella, fighting her sluggish tiredness, which slowly set in after her almost deadly encounter with the leeches, let out a heartfelt sigh. Her legs felt as if she had pins and needles in them from sitting far too long cross-legged opposite the dark haired Asgardian who was mirroring her sitting position and who almost looked as if meditating if it weren’t for the strange sounding words uttered by his lips. The words sounded Norse. It made sense he was supposed to be the Norse God of Mischief after all. The sceptre was lying on his legs, but he only held it with his left hand while the other one was doing the strangest things. He pointed at her with different movements and gestures of his arms, wrist, hand and even fingers. Sometimes she felt as if an invisible force was touching her, but was somehow repelled by her body, but she could not be sure. Shouldn’t she be panicking right now? She had no idea what he was doing to her, but somehow she felt calm. Well, she had an inkling that he was trying to use magic on her, but somehow it did not work. Was this why she felt so calm or because he was so distracted by whatever he was doing that he was unaware of her microscopically trembling of her arms, still bound together behind her back by her heavy metal handcuffs. It had taken some time to remove the plastic coverings of the pen, straightening the pin to an almost 90 degrees angle, while hoping that it was not one of the cheap ones which would break in half  and finding the keyhole on her left handcuff. She had been able to get a hold of a small hairpin while crushing one of her guards into the workstation before. Dr. Cooper from the Navada S.H.I.E.L.D. Research facility would probably have had a nervous breakdown at the disorganized workstations to be found here. She chuckled at that which drew the attention of the pale faced Asgardian.

 “Something amuses you.” he stated smoothly but the question was implied in his voice as he put his head to the side and studied her further. His intense green-eyed gaze unnerved her for some reason. Bad enough to be his prisoner, but apparently he had nothing better to do than observe her. Wait. His eyes were green again! Was he himself again? But a second later, they glazed over with the blue colour again.

 “Where did you get your sceptre of doom from?” she asked him in hope to stop his staring and distracting him before he would realize what she was doing. She now placed the straight piece of wire inside of the keyhole.

“That is not its name.” he stated with his gaze drawn back to the newly pulsating sceptre.

With the wire placed inside the keyhole, she bent it what she hoped and estimated would be approximately seventy degrees.

“Then enlighten me, brother of Thor, what is its name?” Bella taunted in remembrance of what Selvick had told her once and could see that Loki was containing barely concealed rage at the mentioning of Thor. But what was even more curious was that his anger seemed to respell the blue haze coloring his eyes. “He is NOT my brother!” Loki growled with blazing green eyes, his hands clenching.

Bella carefully pulled the pin out of the hole, put it back in and bent the end again. She pulled it out again and checked the shape of her makeshift key carefully with her fingertips. It had an angle shaped like a squiggle.

“It’s called Kunskap är makt.” he answered getting a hold of himself, but stroking it lovingly.

Bella rolled her eyes. _Man and their sticks_.

Bella now put her key in the keyhole, while desperately not trying to lose the pin as her hands had become quite slippery. She wiggled the bent part into the hole so that it pointed toward the locking arm and hoped that it would be at a 90-degree angle to the keyhole. At least it felt like that.

 _Oh, Oh. Loki is narrowing his eyes_. Did he realize what she was attempting to do?

“That does not sound like a name to me, more like a phrase.” she answered with probably some delay in her response time. That was most likely what had made him suspicious. She needed to work fast now.

Just like she would with a normal key she twisted the piece of wire until she could feel it get stuck and she knew that she had to cover the clicking of the cuffs somehow.  She cleared her throat more loudly than necessary as she could hear the faint click of her cuffs as she lifted the locking device. One cuff open, another one to go.

She slowly repeated the procedure with sweaty hands, making the pin slippery, while she watched Loki observe the busily working scientists. Then he suddenly stood up and casually walked towards Eric’s large workstation surrounded by large plastic panels, where he was assembling metal to build something huge. She could spot Eric, looking pale and completely disheveled as if he had not taken time for personal hygiene, talking happily with Barton, who tipped something into his tablet while mumbling something and showed it to the doctor apparently asking him something about their work.

Bella heard the finally heard the silent click of the second cuffs and felt it slipping off her hands. Luckily nobody had realized that she had freed herself. Not even the large Asgardian. But how should she proceed. She was surrounded by countless people, who knew now that she was a prisoner and would probably stop her as soon as she would make one step towards the exit.

Eric seemed to explain something to Barton until he spotted Loki and Bella’s hair straightened and she shuddered, as she observed the astrophysicist greet him like a dependent member of a cult, meeting his cult leader. Especially, as she could hear him say the phrase. “It’s more than knowledge. It’s truth.” Eric has always been critical about people like that, who did not use their own head, but now he was a minion like those kinds of people. Bella strained her hearing to understand what they were saying so far away and the background noise seemed to become less of a nuisance as she focused on what the little group of men was saying. Loki asked Barton, what the Tessaract had shown him and he coldly answered that it had shown him his next target. Loki enquired what he needed and Barton only told him professionally, nodding towards Bella, that he needed a distraction and an eyeball. _They will certainly not get my eyeball!_ she scrowled misinterpreting their conversation.

“Why do you want the girl as a distraction?” he asked Barton curiously, but with a dangerous smile on his lips.

“Because she is most likely related to Agent Coulson and he won’t be able to give clear orders when she is in the middle of it all. You could use her as a human shield.” he suggested.

“Human shield, indeed.” Loki smirked looking back at Bella and she just wanted to scramble on her feet and run towards the exit again, but she knew that she would not come very far. She was no Natasha. Whatever they were planning, was not good and she had no desire to serve as a human shield only to get shot down by her own agency. _Hold on? When had S.H.I.E.L.D become her agency?_

* * *

 

Countless computers were running through an immense amount of data, clattering and tipping could be heard in the main control room, as agents were going through every camera available to find their targets: Loki, Barton, Bella and Eric Selvick.

“I mean, if it’s not too much trouble.” Agent Coulson said observing the workstations intently while talking with his lifelong idol Captain America. So far he was everything his mother had told him about him, but he hoped that he could keep Bella away from him. On the other hand Rogers was not yet over his mother, so there was a tiny chance that he would not go after Bella. But she just was too similar to her grandmother.

“No, it’s fine.” the blonde man answered him looking worriedly.

“It’s a vintage set.” Coulson proudly told him trying to get his mind of Bella otherwise he would not be a help recovering her. “Took me years to collect them all.” _Bella chased down three of the rarest trading cards during her time in Phoenix and sent them to me for Christmas._ He wanted to tell him more about the state of his cards but was interrupted by agent Sitwell: “Got a hit. 67% match. Wait cross match. 79%.” Coulson’s breath hitched and took large fast strides towards the agent asking. “Location?” _Please let Bella be alright!_ “Stuttgart, Germany. 24 Königsstraße” he answered. “He is not exactly hiding and…” he stopped carefully looking towards his superior. “Agents Swan is with him.”

“What!?” Coulson asked sharply, but managed to get his emotions back in check.  Bella was trained for dangerous situations, by the best agents and assassins their agency had to offer and she could take care of herself. _But she could be in danger or get caught in the crossfire. Get a grip of yourself Phil_. He faintly heard Fury ordering the captain to get ready. So much from keeping the captain from meeting Bella. Turning towards the video feed he could now spot Bella, wearing a beautiful green dress, which accented her figure perfectly. He spotted her looking directly into the surveillance cameras.

“Zoom in on agent swan eyes.” he ordered Sitwell, who happily complied. Her eyes did not have the familiar blue glaze, which meant that she was not controlled by the staff Loki had brought with him, but she was very much his prisoner. And looking at her facial expression it seemed that she was angry at the situation.

“What’s wrong with her eyes?” Sitwell asked. “She is blinking quite a bit.”

 _Oh! You clever girl!_ Coulson thought. “Get back to the point where she started blinking with her eyelids.” he ordered Sitwell hovering over him.  “She is using morse code with her eye lids.”

Sitwell went back and played it half-speed while Coulson took notes.

 .. - -  .. - . .. -. .      - .- .-. --. .-  - .. .-. …. . .. -. .-. .. -.-. …. … -.-. …. .- . ..-. . .-.

„IM FINE TARGET DR HEINRICH SCHAEFER“translated while Sitwell tried to find out any information about this scientist, but he came up empty. “Sir, there are a quite a few people in Germany with that name, but none is a scientist of interest for Loki.” he said. Coulson looked at the information again and his gaze stopped at the letters AE in Schaeffer. “Transform the letters AE in the name Shaeffer to the letter A with two dots above. It’s an open-mid front unrounded vowel which was originally written as AE but due to language change and standardization it was changed to Ä.”  Frowning, the bald agent tried it again with that unusual letter and was promptly awarded with Dr. Heinrich Schäfer, who worked with one of the rarest, barely known medal called Iridium, but which showed great promise. Sitwell dutifully relayed the information to the team on the way to Stuttgart.

* * *

 

Bella had soon found out what their plan was and had surprised Loki when he had found out that she had freed herself from her cuffs as she had attacked Barton believing that they would take her eyeball. She had managed to down the elder agent, but unfortunately Loki had intervened again and pulled her away. Barton had only crumbled that he should have thought about this possibility. “Romanov has taught her more tricks than I believed.”

“You will not take my eyeball!” she had spitted trying to wiggle out of Loki’s hard grip, and kicking towards his sensitive area, but it was fruitless.” Her heart had beaten mercilessly until Loki had chuckled.

“Don’t worry, little one. It’s not one of your pretty eyeballs we are in need of.” he said tauntingly soft.

“That almost sounded like a back-handed compliment if it weren’t so creepy.” Bella scoffed kicking at him again but he blocked it again.

“You’ll be the distraction.” Loki had smirked.  “The hell I will.” she had spat and continued her kicking with blazing eyes. Where her tiredness had gone, she had not known. The adrenaline pumping through her blood stream had probably been one of the reasons.

During their short flight towards their destination Loki had magically transformed her training gear into an emerald green ball-room dress. She had hated this and commented it with:”Not a Slytherin, more a Ravenclaw.” but Loki had not understood the pop-cultural reference and looked confused at her but she ranted on:”Great. Escaped one controlling freak, only to be caught by another! Why do men keep insisting on dressing me like a puppet?” She tried to wiggle around in that expensive looking dress. But it reminded her too much of how she had been treated and controlled by the Cullen family and she felt that she worked herself into a miner panic attack.

“Don’t compare me to that excuse of a man” Loki sneered.

“Then don’t act like him!” Bella shot back angrily.

Barton had interrupted their heated discussion with going through the plan again and Bella shuddered at the idea that they would need the eyeball of a Dr. Heinrich Schäfer to get into his lab. Apparently he was the only scientist who was working with it in larger quantities.

Loki should draw the attention of S.H.I.E.L.D away from his lab, so that they could get closer to the scientist, who was a keynote speaker at the gala in Stuttgart.

As soon as they had landed she had tried to get away from Loki, but something wound around her right wrist and disappeared, but she could somehow still feel it. She could not take five steps away from him and scowled at him again. As they were casually crossing Königsplatz towards the large museum, Bella was amazed at how clean the streets were. No garbage anywhere in sight. But she also looked up towards possible CCTV and started her counter plan. If she could not get out, maybe S.H.I.E.L.D was plugged into the countless CCTVs around the world and she could send them a message. When they passed the entry doors, with the small, barely visible number 24 above, she could hear the familiar music of Schubert’s String Quartet No. 13 in A minor, which was also called the Rosamunde Quartet. The small orchestra was playing without any scratching and she would have enjoyed it, if it weren’t for the fact that Loki planned to hurt one of the scientists. She really hoped that S.H.I.E.L.D would arrive before that happening. Everything looked so noble and she felt like she was completely out of place. Loki, being raised a prince of Asgard clearly enjoyed himself while waiting for Barton’s signal to proceed. He even acted somewhat courteous towards her, but Bella just wanted to punch him hard in the face and kick his balls, which she mentally imagined. Everyone would be able to see that she was not part of this crowd. The neoclassical architecture fit perfectly with the displayed artifacts of antiquity. At the altar of the twin bulls, which clearly came from the Mycenae culture of Crete, she would have liked to take a closer look, but unfortunately she had to follow Loki with that invisible leash.  He ambled through the room observing the different groups of people until they stood on a balcony watching how the people slowly gathered around the podium where their target prepared himself to greet the guests and hold his speech.

“Stay here.” Loki grinned while he turned on his heel and swept down the stairs. His eyes were glowing blue. The invisible leash disappeared from her hand. He looked different in his long suit. He almost looked like everyone else, while still looking distinctively like himself. Apparently he could also not live without a bit of green.

Bella looked around with racing heart. She needed to get Dr. Schäfer out of here, but Loki seemed to have brought her up to the gallery to prevent her from doing exactly that. She turned her head towards Loki who happily swept down the stairs with his scepter and she looked towards their target which had begun with his speech. He was seconds away from losing his eyeball. She caught herself and screamed: ”Bomb! Bomb! Get out quick!” As she frantically moved her hands it had the desired effect and people screamingly and hastily ran towards the exits. Even her target. She shortly glanced towards Loki, who had stopped above the last set of steps and had a furious look on her face. His eyes were blazing.

Looking for their target Bella groaned. Dr. Schäfer was one of the honorable ones who made sure that everyone else was out before him as he had organized this gala. “Doktor Schäfer! Verlassen sie das Gebäude! Sie sind in Gefahr!“ (=Doctor Schäfer! Leave the building! You are in danger!)  she screamed at him while pointing towards Loki, who with lightening speed ran towards the poor man who tried to desperately scamble away. Bella looked down if she could risk the jump down the gallery, to help him, but as she was wearing heals she would have broken several bones, if not her neck.

Loki slammed the poor man on the Mycenae altar, got hold of a strange glowing device and held it above the poor man’s right eye, who was screaming in anguish.   She kicked off her heels, grabbed, ripped the dress, so that she could better run in it and raced down the marble stairs towards the victim. She had failed him! Loki turned away, his eyes pulsating blue like his staff. When Bella reached him she pushed him away and checked the pulse of the now unconscious man, who missed an eyeball. It was erratic and he was bleeding heavily from his newly acquired wound. She ripped her dress apart and put the cloth in his eyehole to stop or halt the bleeding. She had no means of contacting an ambulance. 112 was the emergency telephone number for Europe. Loki ignored her and followed the other people outside while changing his appearance. Bella checked the pockets of the unconscious man for a phone and luckily was able to get hold of it. But unfortunately it was code locked. _Damn!_ She tried the most obvious combination and to her immense relief it worked. She dialed 112 and waited for someone to pick it up. 112 was redirected to the police, who would then redirect it to the ambulance service on duty.

“Euronotruf 112. Was kann ich für Sie tun?” (= Euro emergency telephone number 112 What can I do for you?).

 “Ich brauche eine Ambulanz zur Königsstraße 24. Mann wurde angegriffen, ihm fehlt ein Auge und er blutet heftig. Puls ist zu schnell und er ist bewusstlos.“ (I need an Ambulance to Königsstraße 24. A Man was attacked and is now missing an eye. He is bleeding heavily from the wound. His pulse is erratic and he has lost consciousness.” She put it on speaker.

“Die Ambulanz ist auf dem Weg. Atmet er noch?“ (=The ambulance is on its way. Is he still breathing?” another voice came from on the other end. It seemed that she had been redirected to the emergency services. She put one hand on his front and one under his chin and pulled the chin up and listened.

“Ja. Er atmet noch.” (=Yes, he is still breathing.) Bella fought heavily not to faint as the smell of salt and copper finally caught up with her. She needed to help him!. The fall of cotton which she had ripped from her dress seemed to function properly as it dried and she ripped a second bit from her dress and fixated the ball hindering the bleeding with the second longer part, by wrapping it around his head.

“Befindet er sich in der stabilen Seitenlage? Wissen Sie wie das geht?” (=Is he lying in recovery position? Do you know how that is done? ) the person asked.

„Ja. ich weiß wie es geht. Ich bin gerade dabei dies zu tun.” (=I know how to do it and I’m doing it know.”) Bella grunted while pushing the man away from her, so that she would be able to turn him without tossing him off the alter. She pulled his right arm to a ninety degree  angle from his body and straightened his right leg, took his left foot and locked it with his left hand by his left knee and slowly turned him towards her and but them on the alter. After that she angled his head so that his mouth turned downward.

“Done. “she said and corrected herself. “Er befindet sich in der stabilen Seitenlage.” (=He is lying in recovery position).

“Sehr gut. Die Ambulanz ist auf dem Weg.” (=Very good. The ambulance is on its way.) She strained to hear the sirens, but was only aware of the screaming, screeching and apparent fighting outside. The scent of salt and copper was nearly unbearable right now. “Die Ambulanz hat ein paar Schwierigkeiten durchzukommen.” (=The ambulance has difficulties coming through to your location) the person on the phone informed her.

“So lange sie es irgendwie schaffen zu kommen. Ich falle normalerweise bei Anblick von Blut in Ohnmacht und weiß nicht wie lange ich noch durchhalten kann.” (=As long as they are coming. I normally black out seeing blood. I don’t know how long I can manage.”) Bella truthfully told the person on the phone. _Wait, is that “Shoot to Thrill” blaring from all the speakers outside_?

“Ok. Sie machen das toll. Wie ist ihr Name?“ (=Ok. You are doing great. What’s your name?) the person on the other side calmly said and Bella’s mind finally recognized it as a female voice. Well, she could not give them their real name. Not after everything that had happened. “Margret Black” she finally said.

“Do you prefer speaking English?” the woman asked. “The ambulance is there in about two minutes, the street was cleared. Can you hold on until then?”

“Yes, thank you.” Bella answered, busying herself checking his pulse again and breathing again.

“Don’t worry. I’ll stay on the phone until the ambulance arrives.” the woman stated slightly accented.

Hearing running feet towards her she turned around and saw the paramedics running towards her. With wobbly feet she stepped away and let them do their work as they heaved him onto the stretcher and towards the exit.

She followed swiftly, while wondering why there was still no police in sight. The response time in the cities of Germany was normally quite fast.

As she walked through the exits the place was relatively deserted, a few cars were lying on their roofs, two of them were police cars. Shouldn’t there be a hive of police cars swarming the scene?

She saw Loki being packet into a jet carrier. A jet carrier with an eagle logo. A very familiar logo.  S.H.I.E.L.D!


	17. Helicarrier

She ran fast towards the ramp and jumped on it. There was no way that she would be left behind to deal with the big mess Loki had created a few minutes ago. She hoped that Dr. Schäfer would pull through as he was only a scientist caught up in the middle. Loki was sitting diminutive on a bench. Too diminutive. She suspected that his “capture” was part of some plan. His hands in cuffs, which she knew he would be able to get out of if he used one of his magic tricks.

“Sorry, ma’am you can’t be in here.” a familiar “young” man dressed in a tight suit in the colors of her country’s state was addressing her.

“Yeah. Watch me icicle.” she shot back annoyed staring at him angrily, while walking past him. She was exhausted, tired and just wanted to catch sleep for a few hours. So although she felt sorry for snapping at her uncle’s and grandmother’s personal hero she had no extra energy to be friendly at the moment. That last energy would go into punching the so called ‘God of Mischief’ in the face. He more than deserved it.

The captain took a closer look at her and stumbled backwards as Natasha finally took off. But he became even more confused at Stark’s explosive laughter.

“Icicle, That’s a good one mi piú bella, Bella.”  he laughed.

“She is a S.H.I.E.L.D agent.” Natasha supplied explaining her presence to the captain.

“Shield indeed.” the dark haired Asgardian chuckled causing Bella to turn angrily towards him ready to punch his face. She drew her right hand back to hit him hard while snarling, but to her dismay she did not come very far as a strong firm hand caught her wrist.

“That’s enough, ma’am.” Rogers deep voice came from behind her and she struggled to wiggle out of his grip.

“Let me go!” she hissed dangerously.

 “According to the Geneva conventions of 1929, prisoners are not to be tortured or otherwise harmed.” he cited, not letting go of her wrist.

“I’m not going to torture him, but he deserves to be punched in the face for what he has done to Dr. Schäfer. He was bleeding heavily, he could have killed him. If he survives, then he will be stuck with only one functioning eye for the rest of his life.” Bella shouted angrily at the captain. “Thanks to him” With that she pointed towards Loki.

“He has furthermore endangered the lives of dozens of innocent people, including Selvick and Agent Barton. We had a close call with Cold ones and had he not destroyed them there would have been a massive blood bath and I would now be in the hands of the Volturi. And they would do god knows what with me.” She heard Natasha and Tony’s sharp intake of breath. They were surprised.

“So, yes. I will punch him and there is nothing you can do to stop me.” she ranted with blazing eyes, but unfortunately he did not waver but continued staring at her. That would not do it. She had heard many amazing things about the man before her, but nobody had informed her that he was an actual  daydreamer. She quickly spun around, twisted his hand behind him and pushed him towards a startled Tony, who yelped as she dove forwards towards Loki, who actually looked scared for a second and slapped his face hard in anger. His head spun to the other side. _That felt good._ Bella sighed relieved as she rubbed her hand.

He touched his hit cheek with his cuffed hands and chuckled darkly, tilted his head to the side and remarked taunting Bella by roaming his eyes over her body. “Mh. Such passion.”

Her anger was renewed and she wanted to properly punch him this time. Why had she just slapped him?  But to her dismay, the captain and Tony had caught themselves again and were now pulling her back from their prisoner and pushed her on one of the seats in the plane opposite of Loki’s seat. She  tried to stand up again but Tony pointed his gloved index finger at her and ordered smirking like a cat, which had swallowed the canary while patting her hair like a toddler:

“Sit down and behave properly Fantaghiro.”

 _I swear if you continue treating me like a child, then I will kick your butt._ Bella smirked back with tight lips and a dangerous glint in her eyes as she leaned back locking her angles and crossing her arms. She would get back at him for it. After all she hadn’t told him about two other ways to hack his A.I. Charvis. Maybe she could torture him with Justin Biber, which she knew he had a personal aversion against.

But she was finally with her agency again and dared to relax for a second. But she needed to tell them of her suspicion that Loki’s capture was part of some bigger plan. Yet the regular and dull sound of the jet engines quickly lulled her into a soft, much needed sleep. The last thing she became aware was someone putting a blanket over her shoulders and the distant clicking the closing of her seat belt.

* * *

 

He had been caught off guard, when the young woman had unsteadily landed on the ramp. He had not known that there were S.H.I.E.L.D agents, who weren’t under Loki’s control, already on sight. He couldn’t help himself but stare. She looked exactly like a younger and paler version of Peggy. And she seemed to have the same fire in her. She had to be related to Peggy somehow. There were too many facial similarities. Others might not be able to see it, but he had memorized her face and she had to be related to her. Was she the third generation in this agency? As he studied her napping with her head tilted and her lips partly open he couldn’t help but think that she looked rather young to be an agent. How young where Fury’s recruits? Did she choose to serve her country or was she dragged into it. He wouldn’t put it past S.H.I.E.L.D to observe offspring of talented agents as those would be easier to recruit than new ones who had no ties to any military or spy agencies.  But she had looked exhausted and he had no idea what Cold ones were, but judging from Romanov’s and Stark’s expressions they must have been very bad news. As he had seen her shiver in the green, torn and bloodied dress he had put the blanket over her shoulders and Stark had closed her seat belt. She even had still some dried blood on her hands, which suggested that she had tried to save the attacked scientist. 

 He didn’t want the prisoner harmed, but he could understand why she had done it. To be the only agent taken by Loki and resisting being brainwashed was an amazing feat, yet he wondered why the crazy Asgardian hadn’t killed her. Wasn’t it the most logical thing to do for villains? The entire facility in Nevada hadn’t been able to stop Loki and they had managed to take him down in Stuttgart? It almost seemed too easy. Something was fishy.

His gaze wandered towards their prisoner, who seemed almost diminutive, and deep in thought, but for some reason his gaze never strayed far from Bella. Bella, Stark had called her earlier. Loki’s green eyes were fixed on the sleeping young woman strapped in opposite him.

“He’s saying anything?” he heard Fury’s voice faintly over Romanov’s com, but she told him that Loki had not really spoken a word since they had captured him, but he was pleased to hear that Bella was with them. The director ordered her to get straight to their location as they were running low on time.

“I don’t like it.” Steve told Stark conspiratorially.

“What? Rock of ages giving up so easily?” Stark remarked drily. 

“I don’t remember it being that easy. This guy packs a wall.” Steve answered but Stark obviously didn’t get the gist.

“Still, you are pretty spry for an older fellow.” he remarked and asked. “What’s your thing? Pilates?”

Steve became confused. Why did Stark not take this seriously. They could be leading him directly to their bases location. God, they had even failed to search him for any bugs.

“You might have missed a couple of things doing your time as a capsicle.” Stark joked.

“Fury, didn’t tell me he was calling you in.” Steve shot back. _Why is Stark even here?_ So far he only seemed to be a liability. The Iron Man seemed to know Bella. _Hope that Peggy didn’t fall for Howard’s advances._ But that was not Peggy. He knew that they had been friends, but Peggy had been far too strong willed to fall for Stark’s father.

“Yeah, there are lots of things Fury doesn’t tell you.” the other man remarked condescendingly.

Suddenly there was a loud thunder and the air craft shook as it was struck by lightning, waking Bella from her slumber. She was shortly disorientated until she spotted the other people in the plane.

“Where is this coming from?” Natasha commented trying to figure out how to evade it. The satellites had not suggested any thunderstorms in their path.

Loki suddenly seemed jumpy and his face wrinkled. He looked scared. Bella could see that his eyes were green at the moment.

“What’s the matter? Scared of a little lightening?” Steve taunted, but the wheels in Bella’s head were already turning and even confirmed, when Loki answered. “I’m not overly fond of what follows.”

Bella hastily unclipped her security belt and jumped up as another lightening struck the plane.

“Get ready, we are getting another visitor.” she stated.  To the confused looks Rogers and Stark were giving her she elaborated.

“Thor, Norse God of Lightening. Loki’s brother.” Suddenly the plane jerked again as if something had landed on their roof causing Rogers and Stark jump into action.

Iron man put on his headpiece again, while Rogers put on his helmet.

Stark strode determined towards the exit to lower their ramp to confront their new visitor, while Rogers shouted. “What are you doing?”

Bella quickly scanned the room for any possible weapon she could use for defence, but as protocol stated everything had been put out of Loki’s reach. She could not let Thor get her hands on Loki or they would not be able to retrieve the Tessaract in time to save their friends. And Loki’s scepter was nowhere to be seen.

As the ramp was lowered she jumped, as a well built man with long blond hair and an iconic hammer, landed on it. His expression was angry and he tossed his hammer towards Tony who flew backwards from the impact. He was going for Loki and Bella jumped in between the two and stopped him shortly in his tracks.

“You can’t take him from us. We need him at the moment.” she shouted over the loudness of the thunderstorm, but his surprise soon vanished as he grunted and side-stepped faster then she had expected her, pulled Loki’s security belt apart, snatched him by his throat and disappeared into the storm. Bella huffed angrily as Stark and Rogers jumped out of the plane, without any plan of attack.

 _Great! A typical male pissing contest._ But they had no time for that. Whatever Selvick was building for Loki was a danger, which they had to stop.

About thirty minutes later Natasha got the confirmation that Thor relented to the Captain’s logic and that he would come with them to find the Tessaract with them as it was the only chance to get back to Asgard.  

When the landed Bella gasped. The forest, where they landed to pick the four males up looked half burnt, several lines of trees where completely destroyed and deep gaps in the floor. She suspected that Tony and Thor had fought with their toys without actually talking much to each other.

“Next time I suggest using diplomacy first, instead of wrecking our planet.” she thundered against Thor who only grinned sheepishly.

“First you come here and thanks to your brother you wreck a whole small town, now you almost destroy our delicate tundra, just because your testosterone splashes over?”

Tony snickered, but Bella would not have any of it. “The same goes for you Iron Man.” she insisted with blazing eyes.

Steve rubbed his nose to hide his grin. Bella even sounded as bossily as Peggy. It reminded him of how she had talked to the men of his Howling Commando. She was not someone he wanted to cross.

Loki was safely tucked in again, yet to his dismay Bella somehow taken over the command which caused Thor and Loki sitting next to each other with Stark and Roger on the opposite seats staring testily at each other. Bella turned and climbed at Natasha’s copilot seat and sight as that one was cozier then the seat she had set on in the back of the plane. And she spotted Loki’s scepter under Natasha’s seat, who grinned conspiratorially.

“You’re Ok?” she asked and Bella complained. “Peachy. Too much testosterone cramped into one tiny jet.” Natasha smiled understandingly.

* * *

 

Sometime later they finally arrived at the “Helicarrier” and Loki was escorted to a prison cell by not less than thirty heavily armored men. Bella was impressed. S.H.I.E.L.D practically had a flying military command fortress, which could simply vanish. But couldn’t it also be a danger if the wrong people got hold of that technology?

She was ushered in a bathroom to get clean and orders to choin the others in fifteen minutes on the bridge for a briefing. Bella relished the feeling as she breathed in the damp of the warm shower and the strong steam of water running down her body, getting rid of every evidence of her ordeal. When she stepped out of the showers wrapped in a black S.H.I.E.L.D towel with a grey eagle on it she spotted a bundle of new clothes, a suit and shoes, similar to what Natasha or agent Hill were wearing. They fit her perfectly.

When she stepped out of the washing rooms, she saw her uncle leaning against the wall, with his arms crossed, clearly waiting for her to emerge.

When he saw her he took two steps and wrapped her in a tight hug and kissed her on her front. “Never scare me like that again.” he murmured not letting go of her as she hugged him back, but she was scared again to ask. What if the question would make things awkward between them.

“Can’t promise you that. We’re at S.H.I.E.L.D.” she reminded him and heard him chuckle knowingly.

When he let go of her she hesitated, but decided to jump head first into the cold water.

“Can I ask you something?” she whispered carefully. _Please don’t be angry._

“Sure” he answered neutrally.

“Barton has insinuated something which has bugged me already for some time.” she started, took a deep breath and whispered.

“Could it be that you are my biological father and not Charlie?”  He sucked in air and seemed shocked.

Looking left, then to the right he grabbed her hand and pulled her into a storage room, pulled out a pen and clicked it, while a green light started to blink.

“We have three point two minutes before, S.H.I.E.L.D. figures out that I’m jamming their recordings.” he explained.

It was his time to take a deep breath.

“Yes, Bella. You are mine, but due to my job here and your mother’s previous job I couldn’t dare to claim you as my daughter. But god knows I wanted to. So when Renée suggested making me your “Godfather” that I could be in your life somehow, I was overjoyed.”

Tears gathered in her eyes. She wanted to be angry at him for deceiving her, but she could also understand his reasoning. He was Fury’s right hand man beside Maria Hill. She could have been used against him, had anyone known about her. But looking back at it she must have unconsciously known as she had called her official father “Charlie” and only occasionally “dad”.

“Who else knows about this?” she asked with shaking voice.

“Within S.H.I.E.L.D. only Fury so far, outside only your grandmother, your aunt and your cousin.” he answered. 

“I think you forgot the old crusty headmaster, of my high school exams.” she tried to elevate the situation.

“Mr. Charlston is a former SSA agent and old friend of your grandmother. He would take this secret to his grave.” her now confirmed father answered.

_So, in a way I know have two fathers. One biological one and one, who died, but both loved me._

She hugged him again. “Bella, please understand. Nobody can know that you are my daughter. Even your cousin works for S.H.I.E.L.D. under an alias.” he whispered.

 _Sharon?_ At her inquisitive stare he elaborated. “Peggy Carter has made many powerful enemies during her time as an agent and founder of this agency and we, as her offspring, we would be targeted by those in order to get back at her.” he explained. 

“The longer you work for this agency, the more you’ll realize how big her legacy actually is.”

His pen bleeped two times and went off indicating that the jamming was over. We need to head to the briefing.

She followed him out of the storage room and towards the bridge, but they just happened to run into Tony stark who had no changed into one of his expensive suits.

“So, beasty Bella. You need to tell me everything about the Leech incident you mentioned earlier.” he swaggered.

“No, the Cold Ones are not my current priority.” she answered him mirroring Coulson, who she suspected had already been informed of what she had ranted earlier in the jet or had even heard the recording. This would certainly explain why he was so calmly walking next to her.

He huffed annoyed and addressed Coulson: “So, Portland. Pepper mentioned that you liked Portland at this time of the year.”

As they walked past more guards and rounded the corner she could hear a hesitant voice ask:”Iridium, what do they need the Iridium for?” and Stark shortly answered. “It’s a stabilizing agent.”

Turning shortly back to Coulson he suggested. “You could take a weekend off I’ll fly you to Portland.” but the elder agent, clearly being uncomfortable with the suggestion murmured: “That’s a lovely suggestion. Need to stay over there.” he pointed to somewhere behind the table. Bella raised her eyebrow. He wanted to hide something or was just very uncomfortable.

“It means the Portal won’t collapse on itself as it did at S.H.I.E.L.D.” he explained and patted Thor’s strong arms confusing the Asgardian. “No hard feelings point break, but you got a mean swing.”

“It also means that Loki can open the portal as wide and as long as he wants.” Bella deduced and all eyes were now on her.

Tony nodded and decided to play the clown again as he made a handful of strange comments which had the well trained technicians halt their actions in confusion, but Bella suspected that he was planning something else. He was way too docile as it were and he could have a different agenda. Or she was already as paranoid as some of the other agents in the agency.

“How does Fury even see these?” he asked agent Hill, who calmly answered with a hint of annoyance: “He turns.”

Tony commented that it sounded exhausting and kept closing files on Fury’s screen, but Bella followed his movements diligently. Something was up. “The rest of the raw materials … agent Barton can get his hands on fairly quickly. The only major component he still needs is a power source of high energy density.  His hand suddenly lingered at the base of a sceen while he had only touched the previous screens before. Bella made a mental not to check for a bug later.  Hitting his hands together he said. “Something to kickstart the cube.”

But it seemed that Bella was not the only one suspecting Stark as Agent Hill focused her gaze on the millionaire and asked.”When did you become an expert in thermal-nuclear-astrophysics?”

But Tony only responded with: “Last night.”

“The package? Selvick notes? The extraction theory papers?” he asked surprised.  Am I the only one who did the reading?”  Bella nodded as she tried to recall what she could remember. She had seen parts of his notes, but never the complete theory papers.

“Does Loki need any particular kind of power source?” the captain asked curiously and was rewarded by an extremely uncomfortable man with graying hair, who was nervously fuddling with his glasses.

“He’d have to heat the cube to a hundred and twenty million Kelvin, just to break through the Column Barrier.”

Stark happily finished his colleague’s musing. “Unless Selvick has found a way to stabilize the quantum-tunnel effect.”

Bella wanted to answer that if that were possible then he would be able to achieve that then he would be able to use any reactor on the planet, but she held back as she did not know for certain that this would be the correct answer, but fortunately for her the other scientist told Stark exactly that:”Selvick could create heavy ion fusion in any reactor on the planet.”

Tony seemed glad and commented: “Finally, someone who speaks English.”

He shook his hand and with it handed him a backhanded compliment:”It’s good to meet you Dr. Banner. Your work at anti-proton collisions is unparallel and I really like the way you lose control and turn into an angry green rage monster.” _Dr. Banner!_ _The Hulk! We have the Hulk on board._ Bella grinned happily. The amount of fantastic scientists at S.H.I.E.L.D. took her breath away. Maybe he and Tony could cook something up together against the vampires after they had dealt with the Loki situation. That would be quite awesome. She locked eyes with Coulson, who now had a S.H.I.E.L.D. clipboard in his hands while following the conversation with interest.

Although Dr. Banner clearly seemed even more uncomfortable at Tony’s direct way of addressing his little anger management issue.

“Dr. Banner is only here to track the cube.” Fury informed them returning from the lower levels where the specifically designed Cell for Loki was located. “I was hoping that you’d join him.” he told Stark, who nodded.

Steve Rogers suggested: “Let’s start with his stick of his. It may be magical, but it looks an awful like a Hydra weapon.”

“I don’t know anything like that, but it is powered by the cube.” Fury answered and Bella thought that this actually might be a good idea to warn them about their suspicion.

“Yes, it seems as if it is powered by the cube, which suggests that it’s specific radiation spectrometers are almost identical with those of the cube, but it is also a liability to this helicarrier.” she explained.

Fury raised his eyebrow and Bella elaborated. “While we can use it to search for the cube, Loki’s minions, led by none other than our agent Barton, will be able to track the spear. Loki’s capture was way too easy and if he had wanted to he would have been able to get out of his cuffs. It seems that he wanted to get captured and he is mostly biding his time until we are under attack, giving him the opportunity to cripple us. S.H.I.E.L.D. is the only thing standing between him and his goal and by taking out our resources he can achieve that.

Fury nodded approvingly. “Thank you for the warning Agent Swan. But at the moment we need that spear to find the cube. And I want to find out how he was able to turn some of my best agents into his personal flying monkeys.”

Thor asked confused:”Monkey’s” clearly taking Fury’s comment literally, while Rogers proudly stated that he finally recognized a modern day reference. Tony just rolled his eyes.

But Bella needed to get more of her chest:”With all due respect Sir, I believe Loki is just as much a flying monkey, then those agents are.” As her father stepped closer, looking clearly worried, she quickly stated: “And no, I don’t suffer from Stockholm syndrome.”

“What makes you believe that?” Fury enquired fixing her with his iconic angry stare.

She addressed the blonde Asgardian:”Tell me Thor, you grew up beside your brother, right?”

A smile ghosted over his face as he clearly remembered better days with his brother. “Aye, we did.”

“Do you remember your brother’s eye colour?” she enquired with accelerating heartbeat.

“Of course, they are green.” he answered directly. Bella nodded thanks to him, walked over to the screentable and opened Loki’s feed from his short interaction with Fury.

“Then why do his eyes have the same eye colour as the Tessaract or the scepter?” she asked them as a blue eyed Loki was staring back at them.

 


	18. Interrogation

So far everything was going as planned. His current second in command Barton really was a valuable asset, but in the back of his complex mind the fallen Asgardian feared that the young maiden they called Bella could ruin his plans. She was an intriguing young maiden for sure and for a Midgardian quite beautiful. At Asgard the female population had often used him to get closer to his elder brother or closer to the vicinity of power. Especially when it had not seemed that clear that his brother would receive the throne. The first time this had happened it had cut him deeply and the young maiden had paid a price for her appalling behaviour towards him. Her fair blond hair had been turned pitch black and thin and as she had not apologized to him it would stay this way forever. But she was firstly too proud for doing that and secondly too stupid to figure it out. 

What a fool he had been. Thor had always been favoured by father. _No!_ Odin. He wasn’t his father. Laufey was. But who was his mother? He couldn’t be a full frost giant. Although he was taller than most Asgardians, he was neither tall enough to be one, nor had the physical appearance of one. Yes, his skin had temporarily turned blue and his eyes red, when he had touched the cursed casket and he was immune to their touch, but had he been a full frost giant then his true form would have shown and he would have grown more. Or had Frigga magically altered his growth? What was he?  Who was his birth mother? Was she an Asguardian? It would explain how he had Asgardian Magic and how Odin had known that Loki could be passed on as his because he would not grow that tall. So, did Odin know Loki’s birthmother? But how would the transaction between a frost giant and an Asgardian even worked? Or Laufey had not been at his full height when he had procreated.  It would explain why Odin had believed that he had any saying in uniting the two realms with Loki.  He scowled.   Odin had never loved him but only used him to utilize him as a pawn.

Did mother know who his real mother was? Why had she never told him?  Frigga, although not being his birthmother had always loved him, he had felt it and probably would still loved him. Thanos had teased him time and again that even the Asgardian Queen hated him just as much as the rest, but he had not been able to break their special bond. At least he thought that he hadn’t been able to do this.

He shuddered as another faint lance of pain was washing over him. Thanos was getting impatient and was reminding him of his duty to finally deliver the Tesseract. He dreaded what the alien would do to him when he failed to deliver the Tesseract to him. It would be his end probably. Rulership over Midgard in exchange for the powerful Tesseract. He would be able to show Odin, that he would have been the better choice as king. The Midgardians were slaughtering each other in countless, ridiculous wars based on greed, religion, power and disdain. Although some parts of the world were technologically more advanced others were even more primitive. They needed a uniting ruler and he would show them what their realm would be capable of. Of course, it was not the same as Asgard, but it had immense potential. It would be hard to convince them, and many would oppose him at first, but he would show them and train the shield maiden to protect him. Her power would be useful to him. Maybe she could also protect him from Thanos? It was unlikely, but one could never know.

But what would stop Thanos from killing him after receiving the powerful cube and destroying Midgard entirely with the help of Chitauri. For how many deaths would he be responsible then? Why had he even agreed to invade Midgard? Ah. Yes. He wanted to rule. But not Midgard. Asgard was his heart’s desire. To show that he was worthy.

 But Midgard could be used as an example to show that he was worthy to be a king. As another lance of pain was rushing through him he wanted to scream his anger and his pain away, but that would only have showed the Midgardians that he wasn’t as strong as he appeared to be. He had become good at masking his pain on the outside and he felt bone tired, but didn’t dare to fall asleep. He couldn’t show that he felt this way. He could not show any weakness or they would certainly exploit it.  Fantastic. His mind was running in circles again. If he wasn’t careful then he would turn mad. He could not turn mad. Or he already was as he was mentally talking to himself.

The sceptre was not in his hands, but he could still feel its ominous presence somewhere in this flying fortress. He needed it for the mission to succeed, but since his encounter with the shield maiden, he knew that Thanos was watching over his progress through that particular gem in his sceptre. When she had used her power against him it had felt liberating, as if he had been able to think freely again.  Without any pain or dark thoughts lurking in the back of his mind. It had caught him off guard when she had unconsciously shielded him and obviously not known about her gift, but when he had magically examined her afterwards he had detected that the sceptre had actually awakened her gift. It must have been when he had tried to control her mind shortly after his arrival on Midgard. It was not unusual for gifted to discover their powerful gifts during immense danger and those Cold Ones had posed a mortal threat to her. But to some extent she had already been using it, but not been able to do more than protecting her own mind. He even had felt some ounces of magic in her, but she was a Midgardian. How could she have that gift and traces of that particular kind of magic? How did she have small traces of Asgardian magic? Had she inherited it? She was still young, so her power would grow with time. It made no sense. Asguardians had been prohibited to visit Midgard or mix with them by law. There had also not been any exiled Asgardians as far as he knew. They had all been sent to other remote places of the universe. To the best of his knowledge, Thor had been the first Asgardian, ever sent to exile on Midgard. He himself had broken Odin’s rules a few times out of curiosity, but he had never engaged in any particular physical activities outside of Asgard. Her father’s name, if Barton’s theory was correct could imply Nordic influence. Coulson. Son of Coul or rather the Nordic Version. Son of Kol. Odin had fought the Frost Giants in Scandinavia, thousands of years ago, even before his (Loki’s) birth. Had one of his warriors defected? It was unlikely, but not impossible.

She was ironically a shield maiden in an organisation that spelled S.H.I.E.L.D. in their lingua franca and she was very protective of her friends and quite a few people in this organization seemed to care about her: Barton, before his mind had been taken over, the redheaded female assassin, the man with the Iron suit and apparently the blond patriotic muscle who had seen her for the first time in the jet. The way he had looked at her had been strange and Loki had not liked it for some reason. But seeing her put his brother down a peck or two had been quite amusing to him. So far the only person being able to do this had been their mother. She was fierce.

But was she that shield maiden?  Odin had been surprised about it and his brother had teased him mercilessly because of it although none of the two brothers had known the exact phrasing and his parents had been tight lipped about it.  At first he had believed that Siv had been the one the vague prophesy had foretold as she was the first Shield Maiden after the Valkyries had been wiped out, or rather the majority had been wiped out as he had found vague references that some had survived, but he had soon discovered that she was much too different to actually be that person or rather he had felt that she was not the one mentioned. But this Bella Swan seemed to fit the description more as his knowledge about her progressed.  She was a walking shield.

He suddenly stopped his pacing and although another lance of pain was shooting through his body he put on a smirk on his face as he was quite amused and turned to his left when he sensed a person standing in front of his cage. He had not sensed her approach. So he was either loosing his touch or she was really that well trained.

“I’m impressed.” he complemented her. “Not many people can sneak up to me like that.”

But she did not react to his statement, but just kept studying him with her hands crossed. It unnerved him as her brown hazel eyes were staring into his without even blinking. She did not let her eyes wander like many women before her. No, she seemed to be scrutinizing him for some reason? What did she think to accomplish by just looking at him?

“Clearly, the red-haired assassin has trained you well.” he started again, but she still did not react and kept studying him. The black combat suit she was wearing complemented her figure nicely.

What was she doing? Why did she not talk to him? Was she another fragment of his imagination? Had he finally fallen asleep again? He could not have fallen asleep right now. He quickly turned around and used his magic to suddenly appear before her just an inch away from the glass, which would usually have startled everyone, but the brown haired young woman standing in front of him did not flinch. Had she expected it?

She only tilted her head to continue looking him in the eyes and seemed to contemplate anything.

“That’s curious.” she finally started. “Your eyes keep changing colour.”

“I was beginning to wonder if you had lost your voice” he remarked dryly.

“Why has Fury sent you here? Is he not afraid, that you might be working for me now?”

But unfortunately, Bella did not react to his taunting and her facial expression changed into an amused grin.

“Fury doesn’t trust anyone. It’s not in his job description. But what I really want to know is:” She stepped closer until only the glass was separating the two:” Who are YOU really working for?”

Loki frowned. This was not going the way he wanted. “I don’t work for anyone.” he stubbornly refused to give in. But as he was currently blocking another lance of pain, he really wanted her to shield it from him. He became better at blocking the mighty alien.

“Your eyes switched back to blue. You know, for supposedly being the ‘god of lies, deception and mischief’ you are particularly bad at lying” Bella told him with a smirk and Loki grind his teeth. How could she know that? Thor would certainly have believed his lie. But he either lost his touch or she was good at reading him.

“So, I ask you again: Who are you collecting the Tessaract for and who controls the Chitauri?” Ah, so she had talked to his much-despised brother. Impressive, she had not even stumbled over the name Chitauri.

“If you think that I will share my plans with you, my little Midgardian, then you are sorely mistaken.” He answered her evading her questions and cheered as he could spot the hints of a scowl on her face.

He could hear a strange sound. Not the electric buzzing that seemed normal in this cell, but it was more like a grumble. But he could not identify the source.

“You should be thanking me, little Midgardian. I saved your live after all.” He smirked but she only refuted coldly.

“I remember that you wouldn’t have been able to protect me if it weren’t for me. Whatever that was. So, we are even.”

“Oh, we are far from even little Midgardian.” He smirked as he could see in her eyes that calling her little Midgardian riled her up. Her stance and appearance were calm, yet her stormy eyes betrayed her irritation at that term but then her eyes hardened, and he could see that she became determined again.

There! He could hear that sound again? What was that?

“Alright, Loki son of Odin.” She started again, but was interrupted by an angry Loki correcting her:” He is NOT my father!” _Touched a nerve, did I?_ She smirked, and it unnerved him. He had not wanted to burst out like that as he had now shown one of his pressure points.

But he could not see where she was going with her interrogation. With the knowledge he had about her, he knew that she would not have the stomach to hurt or torture him and he would not tell her anything. Barton had told him that the Agency often used the good man-bad man  strategy, or something with a similar name. Was Bella Swan the good “wo”-man. Who would be the bad man?

He saw her opening her mouth, but she stopped, halting her actions and she broke her gaze and her right hand touched her ear briefly.

“Nice talking to you. Thank you for choosing Shield Airlines. We hope that you enjoy your long flight with us.” She imitated mockingly saluting to him, while Loki had no idea what she just had said. She seemed to have made a personal joke, that he was not getting.

* * *

 

“This was a bad idea!” Coulson told Fury watching the feed intently, but the bald man did not beat an eyelash.

“We needed to know if she is acting on her free will and as you can see she is able to get under the Asgardian’s skin, even though her current strategy is not going anywhere, and she proved her theory that his eye colour is indeed changing.” Pointing at the secondary feed displaying the laboratory where the sceptre was examined.

“So, she was right. There is a third party involved” Romanov stated observing the occasional blinking of the sceptre which was reflected in the caged Asgardian’s eyes. 

“It would appear so.” Fury answered and spoke through the comm into Bella’s earpiece:” Thank you, Agent Swan. You can pull back now.”

Natasha snorted: “Did she really just say that? Seems that her snark is back with Stark on board.”

Ignoring that comment while turning towards the read head Fury ordered: “Agent Romanov. You’re up.”

Well, she had not accomplished much, and she could only hope that Natasha was able to get something out of the tall Asgardian. Maybe she had not been focused enough because her stomach had told her quite violently that he finally wanted to eat something, and she definitely wanted to grab a bite. She was starving and felt as if she could eat a whole cow. No. Probably not a whole cow, but something warm would suffice.

* * *

 

Aro was nervously pacing in the throne room, while is two brothers were watching him intently. The twins should already have returned with their prey, but for some reason they had vanished without a trace. They were loyal to the Volturi and would not have abandoned them. No something had to have happened. But what? Had the girl broken her promise and informed the humans about them? But if so, why were they not swarming Voltera right now trying to wipe them out. That would be one of the reactions he expected from those weak creatures. Or did they have technology that the Volturi were not aware of? Some technology could already be dangerous for them and the secrecy of their kind was therefore imperative. The scouts, no lying decapitated on the ground, who had been looking for the twins and their colleagues had come back empty handed. The vast underground tunnel system had been abandoned. A few homeless people looking for shelter in the abandoned underground system, a few unmedicated paranoid humans had been silently dispatched after a painful interrogation, but even those had not been able to tell them much.

“I believe this needs to stop, Brother.” Marcus stated lazily. “With your collector’s obsession you have endangered our coven. We need to fix this fiasco (=disaster).”

Aro stopped his pacing and his nervous fiddling with his pale white hands. “But how? You know her importance. Her gifts would give us immense power.”

“If she is indeed the one, Vestalus talked about” Caius said.

“She is!” Aro rebuked.

“In that case, I suggest we remind our sudditi (=Untertanen) of their duty to serve our coven. We put every other coven on full alert, make sure that every capital in the world contains several of our kind. We put a price on her, which will only be paid if she is delivered alive, unharmed and unchanged.” He explained and Aro nodded.

“Additionally, it pains me to admit that Carlisle might have been on to something when he immersed himself in the lives of humans. We should make plans to finally infiltrate the established structures of state to maintain our secrets. Only hiding seems not be enough any longer.”

“How should that be possible?” Aro enquired. “Most of us won’t be able to live on animal blood alone. It’s revolting.”

“Not to mention that more and more skinny humans started to taste like herbivores lately. They do not taste healthy anymore.  Not enough nutritional blood anymore. I have no idea, which diet fashion those are following, but I need to drink more to still my hunger.” Marcus lazily cut in.

“We will think of something, but now we need to act. There is no time to lose.” Caius ordered standing up to make preparation for probably the largest hunt, this coven had ever seen.

* * *

 

Bella was sitting in the rather empty cantina, inhaling her rather simple noodle soup and relished in finally getting something down her stomach. Although she knew that it probably did not look presentable the way she was eating, she did not care. Who knew when she would be able to get something down again. As exciting her new life was, regular food was something she would not get in case of emergency.

She was slowly standing up to get a refill, when the Heli-carrier shook, and she stumbled.

 _Oh, No! What now?_ Had Banner changed into the Hulk. Her heart skipped a beat. Oh! God. No. That would be a terrible idea.

The red sirens scattered around the carrier went off and she cursed loudly. So much for getting a refill. Whoever was responsible for this ruckus should be glad that she had been able to get something into her stomach, because she was always pissed when she was hungry. She looked down on her now empty bowl and contemplated. Fury wouldn’t have Banner onto the carrier if he were unable to control his beast. So that left the other possibility that Barton had found them already and might try to free Loki and additionally destroy the flying command centre with the highest S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives on board. Taking it out meant that Loki would not have much opposition to conquer the planet. So, she had to stop Barton and his goons to reach Loki’s cell. She put her bowl down on the table, checked her holster and took off towards Loki’s cell in the lower levels of the carrier.

 


	19. Escape

Bella was racing down the narrow corridors, tackling other personal running in a frenzy into several directions. She had long given up apologizing. The ground was shaking several times and the sirens were blearing loudly from all speakers in unison with the alarm lights. The normally white neon lights were flickering indicating unstable power cores. Loki could not escape their grasp, or the tesseract would be lost to them. The ground shook again yet this time it was accompanied by an angry roar and Bella’s heart stopped and she almost froze mid-step mirroring those around her. _SHIT! The Hulk is loose!_

That was worrying and was probably exactly what their “captured” God of Mischief had had in mind. _I this might happen! SHIT! Damn you Fury!_

She caught herself and forced the thought of the loose green monster out of her mind and continued her race to the detention section.

 

* * *

 

Wind was rushing through the detention area as he was preparing to finally eject his Thunderhead of a brother. His hand hovered over the display having successfully protected himself against the annoying agent who Barton believed to be young Bella’s rightful father. Coulson had surprised him. How the man had been able to take out the other guards of the squad to get to detention cell was a mystery to him. But it seemed there was more to him than his mediocre appearance suggested. He had just wanted to knock him out, but the sceptre had taken control and heightened his anger and even recognized that his adversary presented a danger and had to be taken out entirely. Thor was seething and successfully trapped in his round prison. Strategy had never been his forte. All his “brother” was able to do was fight in combat. Why Odin had deemed him worthy to be a king was beyond him. The sceptre was urging him to finally eject his brother, but his hand still hovered over the display. Thor would escape that prison. He had his hammer. But only if he managed to get some control back. It was almost too juicy not to try.

His acute sense of danger prickled, and he could detect the barely audible sound of soft footsteps on metal ground. It was now or never. He swiftly edged his hand closer to the display and quickly jumped to the side when his sceptre reacted. Some small projectile had been aimed to his head, but the sceptre had reacted and built a blue barrier and stopped it mid-air. It could have cost his head! Why had he been distracted? A new wave of pain was lancing through his body in punishment. He growled in anger and looked at the irritating disturbance.

“No!” escaped his lips when he realized who was standing opposite to him with blazing eyes. He wasn’t the only one who had protested at seeing her. Thor and Coulson had mumbled the same exclamation. Her gun aimed at his head.

Bella was unnervingly calm and focused as she held her gun at Loki. She had seen her father sitting with his back to the wall, a strange looking gun at his feet. He looked injured. A seething Thor who looked furiously towards a prowling Loki and who undoubtedly had caused the crack in the glass sell. The young woman was fighting hard against her instinct to run towards her father and help him. No, she wanted to, but if she let the crazy Asgardian out of her sight, then he would attack her as well and she would not be able to help Phil. She needed to make this fight as short as possible and get her father help.

Calmness expanded from her head over her entire being cancelling the noise of the wind around her and the buzzing of the electronics around her.

“You should not be here.” The tall dark-haired Asgardian told her locking his blue hypnotizing eyes with her as he almost casually strolled towards her with an amused smile. 

“Well, too bad for you. I am. If you think that I’ll just let you walk out of here, then you are severely mistaken.” Bella countered calmly raising her left eyebrow challengingly.

“Oh, my little mortal. You are the one that is mistaken.” He said stopping about three feet away from her. “With your newly awakened gift I have no plan on leaving you behind.”

He suddenly vanished in front of her and Bella’s neck hair prickled as she could sense him reappear behind her and quickly ducked to the side, putting her gun back in her holster hearing the Asgardian curse when he had been unable to grab her. She quickly recovered, turned around and faced the large Asgardian who was standing not more than a foot away from her. The sceptre pulsating heavily. 

She kicked the sceptre further away putting more distance between him and her. Corrected her stance and charged at him, but Loki was fast and blocked every lounge by her hands. He was a crackling manically when he retaliated snarling, and his sceptre made contact with her upper body forcing making her fall a few metres back. Bella gasped as the air was knocked out of her lungs when the cold metal of the ground connected with her back. She held her stomach shortly. Now was no time for pain right now. She built up momentum with her legs and jumped back up again facing her adversary. He was advancing on her again with a malicious smile on his lips. But something was off. Was he transparent? No. Either he wasn’t able to perform his “magic” that well, or she could see through it. That advancing Loki wasn’t him. But then where was he. She quickly spun around to the terminal and growled angrily. He was standing right there, his hand outstretched. Ready to eject his brother.

“Not bad little mortal.” He taunted her. “You have heart. But it won’t be enough.”

“Yeah? Watch me!” Bella countered pulling a small syringe out of her pocket, next to her gun.

Loki frowned at her in surprise, stumbling and shaking his head as if trying to clear it. He took a deep breath and as if proving to her that he was not so easily subdued. He snarled and snakingly hit the red ejection button on the terminal.

“No!” Bella screamed as the round prison cell with one Asguardian God of Thunder was ejected into the groundless pit. She tossed the syringe on the ground, grabbed the heavy gun from her holster again and angrily advanced on Loki. He was stumbling away from her and blocking her bullets with his staff. But the most curious thing was that the reflected bullets did never reach her for some reason. They were diverted a few centimetres before they reached her. She could faintly hear them hit the walls and the metal floor. She blinked, and Loki was suddenly standing back in front of her and grabbed her right hand. She tried to wiggle out of his cold grip, but it was useless. He was towering over her and was gritting his teeth. She kicked her left foot towards his groin, but he blocked her with his foot. He let go of her hand and when that mysterious thing expanding from her head extended over him. His confused gaze turned green and his face muscles contorted indicating his pain. It radiated pain. This was her chance. With her left hand she slammed it upward under his armpit with all the power she could muster.

Loki holed taking a step away from her, but unfortunately still gripping the sceptre tightly. He would not let go of it. He swayed locking his gaze with her. Sweat was gathering on his forehead. Then something was pushing against her invisible barrier and Bella shrieked as she was forced back again. She lost her footing and was tossed several metres away from him and she landed on her back again. Bella knew that by the end of the day she would probably not feel it any longer. The blue taking hold of his eyes again. Loki’s breath was laboured which Bella mirrored as she fought to stand up again.

“You’re gonna lose.” A laboured voice interrupted Loki’s advancement who stopped in his tracks. He turned towards Coulson. Bella shook his head and crawled towards her father.

“Am I?” Loki asked him gently taking a step closer to them.

“Your heroes are scattered; your floating fortress falls from the sky. Where exactly is my disadvantage?” He smiled at them. Bella wondered. Was her father up to something? He looked drained and weak at the moment. He desperately needed help.

Phil’s eyes narrowed determined. “You lack conviction.” He must have hit a nerve as Loki’s face suddenly changed into an angry glare as he took another threatening step towards them. “I don’t think that I…” but he was interrupted at the sudden appearance of scorching heat that was shooting towards him throwing him backwards burning through the wall. Her father had goaded him towards the line of fire. There was no chance that he would have survived that without an injury. Bella hoped and she didn’t care. Her priority was getting Phil help.

“That’s what it does.” Phil murmured with a cheeky smile appearing his head dropping towards the wall behind him.

“Men down in the detention area! I need a medic! I need a medic!” Bella screamed frantically in the radio. _No, No, No! I can’t lose you too!_ She grabbed part of his suit and a knife she had in her boot and cut a piece of cloth from it to clench his wound on her back he could not bleed out behind. Cold sweat was gathering on his front and she could see that he was having trouble breathing and focusing his eyes on her. Her hands were still steady as she forced every thought that she could lose him back down. She had to keep control over her feelings.

“Sorry, Bella.” Phil panted perched against the wall.

“You have to stay awake.” She ordered him with wavering voice pressing the cloth against his wound with her left hand and grabbing his chin with her right hand. _I can’t lose control._  “I’m clocking out here.” He joked hoarsely smiling warmly at her, and Bella’s eyes started to tear. _Not loosing control._

“Not an option!” she ground out. “We didn’t have enough time to get to know each other as father and daughter. There is so much we still have to do.”

He dazedly smiled at her and raised one of his hands to her cheek. It clearly caused him a lot of effort.

“It’s alright.”  He gently wiped an escaped tear away. It caused her to tear up even stronger as her heart constricted, and her breathing became harder. “I couldn’t have wished for a better, stronger and more beautiful daughter.”  He whispered while a new wave of tears wracked her body.

“You can’t give up. Please.” She whispered back.

“Love you. So proud, so proud, …” his hand and his head sank. Bella’s breath hitched, tears were streaming down her cheeks, making it difficult for her to see.

“No! No! No! Phil. No!” She shook him as if she could wake him up again. But it was hopeless. Suddenly somebody was pulling her back and she didn’t want to leave him here.

She struggled to get free. To stay with her godfather! No, her father.

“Agent Swan. Please calm down.” Fury’s strict voice entered her foggy mind and she her body slacked. Crying and barely noticing, how Phil was being carried away.

 _No._ She wanted to stay with him! But Fury didn’t let her.

* * *

 

Half an hour later she was silently sitting at the conference table of the carrier in between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, but she couldn’t focus on anything.  Stark had patted her on the shoulder earlier when he had seen her. It had almost looked as if he had been close to hug her but had patted her another time. The entire command centre was unnervingly silent as if all the technicians were still trying to process the attack and the fact that they were still alive.

Her mind and sight were blurry, her face felt hot and puffy and her hands were shaking. Her back was throbbing, and her wrist had a growing green ring around that was beginning to hurt slightly. She was repeatedly wrecked by a new wave of tears. The white wet paper handkerchiefs were staggering in her lap. It seemed that Nana’s worst nightmare had come to pass. Her son had died before her. How should she tell nana about his death? She was an incredibly strong woman, but the loss of her eldest child? Especially, at her now frail physical state.  Worst case scenario would be that she became so affected by it, that she would soon follow him.

“These were in Phil Coulson’s jacket.” Fury’s deep voice rose her from her hurtful musings. “Guess, he never did get you to sign them.” He addressed Rogers and tossed a batch of them on the table in front of him. Bella’s breath hitched at the sight of his little treasure. Now covered with blood. Although she could vaguely smell the metallic scent of salt and copper, the odour did not affect her at all. She watched Rogers pick up one of the cards with serious and thoughtful expression.

 “We’re dead in the air up here. No communications, no locations of the cube, Hulk, Banner, Thor. I got nothing for you. Lost my one good eye.” He paused gravely and continued murmuring. “In the end I had it coming.”

Bella had to give it to Fury. He did seem to be mourning Phil, but he was probably just sad to have lost one of his closest operatives. Stark turned his chair around that he was facing away from the table, while Rogers put the raised captain America card down again.

“Yes, we were going to build an arsenal with the tesseract.” Fury conceded slowly moving towards them.

“I never put all my chips on that number though, ‘cause I was playing something even riskier.” He told them stopping and leaning against the back of an empty chair. Bella frowned knotting all her handkerchiefs into one ball. It all started to sound like the beginning of a confession.

“There was an idea” He edged closer to them. “-Stark knows this- called the Avengers Initiative.” He slowly walked behind them.

“The idea was to bring together a group of remarkable people.” Fury stopped behind her and put his hands on the backrest of her chair. “To see if they could become something more. To see if they could work together, when we needed them to.  … Fight the battles, we never could.”

He let go of her backrest and moved past Stark and turned towards them again.

“Phil Coulson died still believing in that idea….In heroes. He believed in our responsibility to make the world a better place for those coming after us.” Bella gulped, fighting back her tears. It sounded so much like him. He always had put his faith in heroes and she wouldn’t be surprised if that idea had originally come from him. After all his mother had done quite the same during WWII with the 107th. Her influence on him must have been very strong. She couldn’t sit her any longer. She needed to get out. Apparently, she was not the only one as Tony Stark quickly rose from his seat. Took the scene around him in and quickly walked away. Fury observed his leaving and mentioned.

“Well, it is an old-fashioned motion.”

That was a dig at Steve Rogers. Fury was using Phil’s death to accomplish something. She couldn’t stay in here right now. She scrambled to her feet and quickly fled from the command centre.

 

* * *

 

She had aimlessly meandered through the carrier, which had displayed several stages of disrepair, but something had drawn her back to the now empty prison cell, where her birthfather had died.

It seemed that she wasn’t the only one when she could detect Roger’s voice.

“Was he married?”

“No.” she answered him stepping into the room seeing that he had directed his question towards a motionless Tony Stark. “He was …married to his job, …but he did have a family.”

Rogers was casually leaning against the rail with his arms crossed and a deep frown on his face. Both were now focusing on her.

“There was a cellist. I think.” Stark added looking in the circular room.

“That’s were you know more than me.” Bella told him sighing. “He dedicated his life to S.H.I.E.L.D. to make the world a safer place.”

“I’m sorry. He sounded like a good man.” Rogers said empathically, and Bella nodded fighting back some tears. 

“He was.” She told him hoarsly.

“He was an idiot.” Stark ground out and Bella’s anger flared up.

“How dare you!” She growled.

“Why?” Roger asked siding with her. “For believing?”

“For taking on Loki alone!” Stark rebuked huffing turning around the pillar. “He was out of his league. He should have waited. He should have…”

“He was doing his job.” Bella defended her father. “We all fell for Loki’s trap. Right from the beginning. Everyone was so busy keeping us in the air. He was the only one doing his best to close down the detention area.”

Roger stepping down from his stance stepped walked closer to Stark nodding at her. “Sometimes there isn’t a way out.”

“Right.” Stark huffed walking past the two.

“Is this the first time you lost a soldier?” Rogers asked him which clearly enraged the billionaire.

“We are not soldiers.” Tony angrily reprimanded him. He seemed to struggle holding back emotions himself.  Then pointing his hand at Bella he added. “She just graduated. She should be drinking, partying and enjoying life. Not fighting. Especially, not some crazy alien that that has cut down one of us.”

“I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.” Bella answered with clenched teeth stomping her feet. “I have nowhere else to go and as you know I haven an entire species hunting me for my blood. Phil might not have wanted this life for me, but in retrospect. There is no escaping it. We need to find Loki and put an end to this. Fast!”

“I’m not fighting Fury’s fight for him.” He remarked with clenched teeth.

“Neither do I” Rogers agreed. “He has the same blood on his hands as Loki does. But as Ms. Swan said, we need to put this behind us and get things done.”

Stark took a deep breath and spied towards the red spot at the wall which where remnants of Coulson’s blood.

“Now, Loki needs a power source. We need to put together a list …” Rogers remembered.

“There is only one power source powerful and stable enough.” Bella murmured, but apparently the two men in the room were quarrelling again.

“He made it personal.” Stark interrupted him.

“That’s not the point.” Rogers answered him with annoyance creeping into his voice and turning his gaze towards Bella. It seemed that he had heard her. “Which…”

“That’s exactly the point. That’s Loki’s point. He knows to take us out.” Stark insisted.

“Which I have warned you about from the beginning, but none of you testosterone filled hotheads were listening to me.” Bella angrily told them.

“Right.” Tony nodded at her. “He hit us right where we lived. But why?”

“To tear us apart.” Rogers suggested but Stark wasn’t entirely convinced.

“Devide and conquers. Great but… He knows he has to take us out, but when…! That’s what Loki wants. He wants to beat us. He wants to be seen doing it.”

Tony grew excited and stepped past them again. “He wants an audience.”

“Like his act in Stuttgart.” Bella nodded.

“Yeah. Right. This was just previews. THIS is opening night.” He clapped his palms together getting back up the steps. “And Loki is a full-time diva. He wants flowers. He wants parades. He wants a monument built to the skys with his name plast…”

He stopped his train of thought clearly wondering if he still was talking about their enemy.

“Yep, that power source. Took you long enough.” Bella remarked nodding.

“Son of a bitch.” He cursed walking towards them.

* * *

 

Bella had broken into the weapons storage and got ready for the coming fight strapping several knives, two handguns left and right into her holster, a whole arsenal of clips and other useful things and one weapon that she desperately wished to be banned from the streets. This weapon should only be in hands of military personnel and not some crazy gun fetishists. She even had found a very interesting staff that reminded her of those she had seen in one of the Star Wars Marathon’s she had with Jake once. They would certainly come in handy.

An icy shiver ran down her throbbing back. In whatever fight she had been before. This would be the real thing. There was an army coming and there weren’t much of them left. And those civilians owning such a fire-arm were not particularly clever in the use of it and usually quite the cowards. So, if they decided to join the fight, which was in the 0,01% range, she would have to expect “friendly” fire. That’s why desperately hoped that Thor and Banner would find their way to New Work. Otherwise they were screwed.

There was no way that she would let them leave her behind. And Stark seemed to be a bit protective about her now. But she would not let Phil have died in vain. She was able to fight. No, she wanted to fight. She was angry. Furious even: At Fury for not heeding her warning, at her birthfather doing his duty and confronting Loki alone, for her not being faster to prevent him from dying.

She would give them hell. They had to stop he crazy Asgardian or many more lives would get lost. If he was able to get his army of Chitauri through that portal, chances were high that whatever was controlling him would swiftly follow and turn their planet into a wasteland or worse. When she had fought Loki, his eyes had switched steadily between blue and green. Whenever his eyes had turned green he had seemed to pull his punches, but then the blue gaze had taken over again and had fought her mercilessly. She still ached from some of his mean punches, her wrist was unfortunately slightly swollen, and her back was still throbbing mercilessly.

 But considering that he had levelled a Southern town just to spite his brothers a few month ago, she wasn’t sure if perhaps the power controlling him was really directing him that much or just heightened the dangerous parts of his personality. Maybe he was supervised through his sceptre. Would it break the connection if she were able to get it away from him and wacked it hard on his head? It had apparently worked on Barton. She would certainly try.

As she quickly made her way towards the hangar bay she stopped in her tracks. What if she had not only to fight Loki and the Chitaury? The leeches could just lay low waiting for a catastrophe to happen and use it to their advantage. Would she have to fight them too? How exactly should she do that?

 “Ready?” Barton asked her as she joined him Rogers and Natasha.

“Ready.” She nodded. “Let’s kick some asses.”


	20. Let the battle begin

* * *

"Frigga, it is getting late. Come to bed my beloved." Odin said stepping onto the balcony overviewing the entire city that the descending evening sun cast into reddish golden.

"I can't" she answered with taut voice still facing away from him. "Not when both my sons are still away in danger."

Sighing heavily Odin stepped closer and put both of his hands on his dear wife's shoulders. "Thor will bring him back. You needn't worry about that." He whispered gently into her ear feeling his love leaning into him.

"I do not doubt that, dear. But in what state? Loki is not himself!" Frigga ground out shrugging off her husband's hands. She turned around. "Someone is controlling him. I know it. I can feel it in my bones."

"Nobody is controlling him. He alone is responsible for his actions." Odin riposted defensively. "He has too much of his birth parents in him."

"That is not true! He is NOT his father and even less his mother. He has a sensitive disposition, yes, but a strong Asgardian heart. We should have told him the truth from the beginning." She gasped holding back tears. "All that secrecy was bound to break loose in the most unfortune moment."

"The truth would only have hurt the kingdom even more." Odin defended himself stepping back. "The truth could jeopardise everything. All the peace that I worked so hard to keep."

"The kingdom?" Freya huffed. "What about Loki? Finding out the truth this way has hurt him more than you can imagine. And now you want to bring him back to Asgard to punish him for mistakes that you've made in the past."

"Frigga, enough of this!" Odin ordered. "The past is the past. We can't change it and Loki …"

"Loki does have a legitimate claim to the Throne." His queen interrupted him sternly. "Yet you favoured Thor even though he was not ready yet. You chose to let your fear of what Loki could become rule your decisions since the day you realized that he preferred to wear her colours."

"I've made my decision. Thor has proven himself worthy enough to protect the nine realms. He may be brash at times, but Loki's spree proves that he is incapable of ruling the nine realms."

"That's where you are wrong Allfather." She interrupted him sternly. "Loki used to be more astute at diplomacy than Thor. He worked so hard to please you and never managed to do this because your only good eye was on your second-born."

"I agree that Loki would have made a good adviser, but he is not suited for a king." Odin agreed and gulped gazing into the blazing eyes of his wife who put her hands onto her hips. It seemed that he would have to sleep alone tonight.

"Then give me one good reason why?" she challenged. "And don't you dare say because of his heritage."

Odin sighed. "The people don't trust him. He fights with his tricks, mind games, word plays and with his magic. They do not consider this honourable. There is a reason why they called him silver-tongued. And after what he did on Earth, they will trust him even less."

"That's it?" Frigga hissed. "Since when do you care about what people chatter about. Yes, Loki is good at talking himself out of trouble. And his trickery did save Thor and the Warrior Three often enough when they acted too brash. And what he does on Earth is not his doing. He is being controlled. You forget I was raised by witches. I know that this is not him." She stepped closer and put her hand over his heart.

Odin gently took it. "No, I did not forget that you were raised by witches my love. But you do look at the situation with the worries of a deeply caring mother. Huginn and Muninn are observing the situation and will report back to me. So, if Thor is successful in bringing Loki back to Asgard, then I will seek their counsel. Does that put you at ease?"

Her blazing glare told him otherwise.

* * *

Her hands were sweating, and she had checked her rifle, her magazines and the ammunition a couple of times already. Checked the knives hidden in her boots and at her side and the two guns. Her back and her wrist were pulsating angrily, but she fought to ignore it. She could heal after the battle, her first battle and it just had to one with the highest stakes: The future of her planet. _No pressure, right?_

She knew that everyone in the jet (including her) hoped that would be able to stop Loki and his minions to open a portal, but in the last few minutes her inner mind had started to conjure up flashes of a large portal over Stark tower, with strange creatures descending from it wreaking havoc on the city. The Chitauri. _My imagination is running wild_. They were going in blind as they had no idea about any possible weaknesses of those aliens. How did they look? Where were their weak spots? Did they have weak spots? Could they be wearing space armour that was resistant to their weapons? What if she shot at what she believed to be the heart or brain of them, only to find that their vital organs were at different places? If they were an army, then they had to communicate. How would they be able to communicate? On frequencies that they could detect hopefully. She grit her teeth. No, even if they managed to detect their frequency then it was very doubtful that they could translate it. Their best option would be to jam it, but they didn't have the necessary equipment for that with them.

Bella mentally jumped. There was something that she needed to do. The city was entirely unprepared like it had been on 9/11. But this time the devastation could be ten times worse. She clicked off her seat belt earning herself a stern look from Rogers, but he thankfully kept his mouth shut this time. She quickly strode over to one of the terminals and logged herself in, entering a stolen code which gave her access to the alert system of the Emergency Management Agency. She hesitated. Took a deep breath. Would alerting NY to an imminent attack still give them enough time to prepare. Or would she cause even more chaos? She contemplated. No, she decided. She at least needed people to leave the skyscrapers and find refuge in the basements or underground. If they stayed in them the potential death toll would be higher. Better safe than sorry.

She tipped: EMERGENCY ALERT: BALLISTIC THREAT INBOUND TO NYC. SEEK IMMEDIATE SHELTER UNDERGROUND. THIS IS NOT A DRILL. Two warnings flared up from the system telling her that she couldn't send this without otherization of at least two other individuals. She rerouted their clearance and sent it anyway. Diplomacy could deal with this later. That's what diplomats were there for. Right now, people were in instant danger and needed to be moved underground for their safety. On the other hand, this could tip Loki off about their arrival, but she couldn't let people die in the skirmish just to keep holding the element of surprise in their hand.

"Wotcha doing?" Barton asked her glancing back to her shortly.

"Issuing a missile alert on NYC, urging them to seek immediate shelter underground." She answered him seemingly calmly, but she couldn't keep her nervousness out of her voice.

"That's a good idea." Rogers praised her his previous stern gaze evaporating.

"Well, you are also losing us the advantage of the element of surprise." Natasha scolded her.

"Loki expects us to show up anyway. This alert might save a few lives at least." Barton acknowledged. "Whose authorization did do you use?"

"Coul… My father's." Bella answered her solemnly openly acknowledging that fact. His had been the fourth-highest clearance of S.H.I.E.L.D she had discovered a few weeks ago. "They haven't been able to update the system yet." She logged herself out of the system again and turned around.

"We need to talk about the possibility that Loki manages to open the portal. We don't know who or what is waiting on the other side. How many they are. I mean Loki said that he had an army. How much firepower they have? And…"

"Stop." Barton interrupted her grimly. "Calm down, Bella. Breathe. We solve one problem after the other."

"But shouldn't we be prepared?" she clenched her hands and took a deep breath as advised. "I mean for all eventualities?" No, it wasn't working. She had to stay calm or she would be useless. Taking on Loki one on one was one thing. Taking his army was something completely different. Too much was at stake. They couldn't fail.

"This is an alien attack, Swan," Rogers spoke up. "You can't be prepared for that. Our priority is to stop the portal from opening for now. If we don't manage that then we figure the rest out on the go. Now please strap back in."

Bella huffed but followed his orders. He was right. It was dangerous standing like that when they'd run into trouble.

The young ginger woman was delightfully twitching in his arms as he slowly relished in draining her blood. His pray had already lost the strength to scream and the twitching was her last attempt to fight back and her heart was working overtime now to make up for the sinking pressure in the blood vessels. She gasped for air like a carp out of the water. He took his time with this one. After all, he was standing in front of the cell that hosted the Cullen family, which he had starved for weeks now and he hoped that they would soon reach their breaking point and turn to their natural diet again. Carlisle sat in the corner with his mate Esme and held each other tightly, but their dark eyes portrayed their burning hunger. The empath was rocking himself and murmuring nonsense, while his mate Alice was lying motionlessly next to him. She tried to ignore her hunger but was unsuccessful. He knew that she did have small visions, that she didn't feel to share with the Volturi but eventually she would join them. If only to stop her mates suffering. The brute Emmet, whose mate had fled before the Volturi could capture her again was gulping hard when he observed the feeding. Yes, this one would join his guard soon. He was sure of it. That only left Edward, who sat motionless next to his adoptive parents. His right hand was trembling, indicating his hunger. He had tried to trick the Volturi in order to get out, to find Bella himself, when he had heard of what happened to the team that was supposed to catch her. But luckily, they had seen right through his trickery. And Aro knew that he was hungry.

The hands of his meal sunk, and her body slacked. He smacked his lips and let her out of his grasp dropping her right in front of the strong metal bars. He knew it. They were edging closer.

"Brother, stop playing with the prisoners." Marcus admonished him. "Vestalius has found her."

Aro couldn't contain his smile. This time it had to work. She had to finally become part of their clan. The prophecy could be fulfilled. Everything would go back to normal.

"The battle will give us an opportune moment to extract her." Marcus drawled earning a confused look not only from Aro but also from all the Cullens.

"What battle?" he enquired with growing curiosity. Human battles were of no interest to the Volturi, so his brother calling it a battle, that would mean that it was significant enough for them.

"Vestalius called it the battle of New York." Marcus drawled. "Humans versus an alien."

"Stai scherzando? (=You must be joking)" Aro exclaimed. It was very uncharacteristic of his brother to joke. _Aliens?_

"No. I'm not, yet I might begin to question Vestalius abilities." His brother drawled, his gaze wandering over the Cullen's who all followed their conversation with interest. "An extraction team on the continent has been dispatched to catch your prey and put an end to this entire situation."

"Gav-no (=Гавно = shit)" Natasha cursed loudly.

"Ok, too late. Figuring out the rest on the go it is." Barton ground out. "The portal is already open."

"What?!" Rogers jumped up from his seat and this time it was Bella sending him a glare. So much for safety. He apparently didn't care when his own security was on the line.

"Stark we are on your three-headed northeast." Natasha informed Iron Man via her com who swiftly responded: "What did you stop for drive-through?! Swing up the park. I'm gonna lay 'em out for you."

Her breath accelerated. This was it. No way out of this. The jet tilted and swayed pressing her into her seat as Barton was navigating through the narrow space in between the skyscrapers. Rogers had grabbed the netting handholds when the jet had taken another sudden turn. It levelled out. A second later she could feel the vibrations from the machine gun rattling off bullets towards the alien vessels. Some of the bullets found their targets in a series of percussive blasts. The jet rose upwards and she was pressed back into her seat, her back protesting for a second until it levelled out again.

"Nat."

"See 'em" she acknowledged while Barton directed the jet so that it put it in a perfect line to shoot at Loki, who, if she could see it correctly through the front window had managed to down his brother. She breathed out. Thor had survived. That was good news at least. The rattling of the machine gun told her that although they were shooting at Loki, it didn't seem to affect him or Thor much. A heartbeat later a dull explosion combined with the warning lights flashing on the control board the jet rocked and dropped taking her heart with it. _Fuck!_ _I'm about to die!_ This had been a mistake! Why had she thought that she could do something to stop the mad Asgardian or his alien army! She slid sideways the seat belt straps jolting against her shoulders as Barton tried to land the bird without hitting too many buildings. How he managed to level it out again was a mystery to her, but she swore that if she made it out alive then she would put definitely flying lessons onto her ever-growing list of things she needed to learn. She gripped her seat tightly as a dropping sensation in her stomach accompanied the actual drop of the jet as it was losing height. She jolted forward when the jet hit the ground hard. Screeching and scraping of metal on the hard asphalt made her greet her teeth until the forward movement stopped altogether. Taking a glance at the elder people around her she quickly mimicked their behaviour, opening her seat belt and followed them out of the smoking jet. Her feet slightly unsteady.

Pull yourself together! She admonished herself. She had to stay calm. They had survived this landing. So, they had to survive this battle.

Smashed and crumbled vehicles were parked at odd angles. Debris lying on the ground making it hard to navigate out of danger for the people fleeing to safety. The smell of burned rubber, smoke and oil were invading her senses. Sirens could be heard from all around her together with the terrified screams of the people around her. It seemed that she had sent the warning too late. She took a deep breath. It was time to block out all the horror that was going on around her. She had to stay calm and collected or she would be useless. Emotion wouldn't serve her here. Emotions could come after … whatever would come after this. She took another deep breath and calmness was extending over her mind blocking her growing fear.

"We gotta get back up there!" Rogers ordered taking the lead but was interrupted by a loud deep roar coming from the sky, resounding along with the buildings. She had to pinch herself. Two gigantic brownish-grey creatures with serpentine bodies and massive teeth were slowly descending from the portal with other alien vessels accompanying them.

_Yay, we're doomed. But I'm not going out without a fight._

* * *

The forests were almost silent in the daily cold and damp rain of Forks. Jacob was restlessly running his rounds with his pack today, but they hadn't crossed paths with traces of vampires for weeks. But he refused to think that they were simply gone. According to their Alpha Chief, his father, they had planned something even worse with her and it had made him angry. Now the runs were almost meditative, one paw after the other but his friends still complained heavily when his thoughts returned to his best female friend. He hoped that wherever she was, that she was safe.

Suddenly, he felt another mind joining them and fought back his annoyance. Seth. He had explicitly told him to stay at home to work on his homework. But strangely his emotions were all over the place. Surprise, wonder, fear and excitement.

 _"_ _Guys you're not going to believe this! New York is under attack!"_ he told them in excitement. " _By Aliens! "_

 _"_ _Yeah, right!"_ Jacob shook his head in irritation. " _I ordered you to study not watch some big ass blockbuster."_

 _"_ _No, it's true."_ Seth defended himself and Jacob could feel that the young boy was telling the truth. _"It's all over the news. Come and see for yourself."_

15 Minutes later they were back home sitting spellbound before the TV. That wasn't possible! Aliens in New York? Normally, only Fox News was sprouting such hoaxes on a daily basis. But curiously all channels were reporting the same in unison. There truly seemed to be an Alien attack from outer space that came through portal or wormhole.

"Streets of New York City have become a battle zone. The army is here trying to contain the violence but seems to be outmatched. Unidentified sources claim to have seen an additional strike team defending the city. We have no information on the team, but we do know that Tony Stark's Iron Man is in the field."

"That's crazy." Leah murmured. "Aliens."

"Yeah. You know what's really crazy." Quil asked. "Why is it, New York?"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Working on the battle, which I hope to post around February. Comments are always welcome.


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